KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Highway speeds on U.S. Highway 80, Spur 557, U.S. Highway 175, and Interstate 20 are expected to increase in 2015.
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Highway speeds on U.S. Highway 80, Spur 557, U.S. Highway 175, and Interstate 20 are expected to increase in 2015.
The proposed speeds will be submitted to the Texas Transportation Commission in a January meeting and, with passage of a minute order, will become enacted.
U.S. Highway 80 from the Dallas-Kaufman County line to Spur 557 is proposed to increase to 70 miles per hour. Currently, U.S. Highway 80 from the Dallas-Kaufman County line to the eastern city limits of Forney is 60 miles per hour and 65 miles per hour from the eastern city limits of Forney until the western city limits of Terrell, Texas — where the Spur 557 begins.
Spur 557, which connects U.S. Highway 80 and Interstate 20 south of Terrell, is proposed to increase from 65 miles per hour to 70 miles per hour.
Interstate 20 from the Dallas-Kaufman County line to Spur 557 is proposed to increase from 65 miles per hour to 70 miles per hour. From Spur 557 to the Kaufman-Van Zandt County line, the speed is proposed in increase from 65 miles per hour to 75 miles per hour.
U.S. Highway 175 throughout Kaufman County is proposed to increase to 70 miles an hour, up from 60 miles per hour from the Dallas-Kaufman County line to the eastern Crandall city limits and 65 miles an hour east of Crandall to the Kaufman-Van Zandt County line.
Regionally, drivers coming from Dallas County on U.S. Highway 80, U.S. Highway 175, and Interstate 20 can expect to begin traveling at speeds of 70 miles per hour beginning at Interstate 635.
Speeds across the state of Texas were reduced in 2001 after the Texas Legislature enacted the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan which, among other things, lowered speed limits in an effort to reduce vehicle emissions.
In September 2012, the Texas Department of Transportation, in conjunction with the North Central Texas Council of Governments and the Commission on Environmental Quality, identified control strategies to mitigate the Environmental Speed Limit implemented by the 2001 legislature.
After conducting speed zone studies, the Texas Department of Transportation has concluded the proposed speeds are more “in-line with what drivers are comfortable driving.”
If enacted, it would be early spring 2015 before the signs are installed.