On Thursday, Aug. 22, Whitesboro resident Jamie Wells met with TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) officials regarding her concerns about the speed limit on Highway 377 and Bones Chapel Road.
In a detailed letter to TxDOT on June 24, Wells called for a reduction in the speed limit along that stretch of highway, as well as a request to change the road to a ‘No Passing Zone’ and add a turn lane.
At this meeting, TxDOT agreed to slowly decrease the speed limit on U.S. 377 near Bones Chapel Road from 70 miles per hour (MPH), to 65 MPH to 60. They also have plans to add a turn lane.
In her letter to TxDOT, Wells (who lives on the corner of U.S. 377 and Bones Chapel Road) mentioned the many accidents that have happened at that intersection. The most recent ended in a fatality when, according to troopers, 24-year-old mother Emberlynn Cotton rear-ended a vehicle that had slowed to make a turn. Her car was forced into oncoming traffic and was fatally struck. Two others involved in the accident were severely injured.
“From now on, when the next accident happens, you can’t say you didn’t know. Future accidents are on your hands, if you choose not to address this road,” Wells wrote in her letter.
Wells isn’t the only citizen who has contacted TxDOT with concerns about this stretch of road. In June, citizen Ken Smith started a petition to invoke change. As of today, the petition has 556 signatures. (Read more about Smith’s petition in the July 5 issue of the News-Record.)
At last week’s meeting, Wells was accompanied by Whitesboro’s Mayor Dave Blaylock, Whitesboro Fire Chief Steve Pinkston, Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Patterson, Fire Captain Steve Wilcox and, from Whitesboro’s Police Department, Lieutenant Kevin Dockery.
TxDOT representatives included Paris District Engineer Noel Paramanantham, Paris District Area Engineer Aaron Bloom (Grayson and Fannin County), Paris District Director of Operations Tommy Henderson and Paris District Traffic Engineer Darius Samuels. Paramanantham began the meeting by thanking Wells for writing to TxDOT.
“Every life lost bothers us,” he said. “TxDOT’s goal is to get to zero fatalities on roadways. So much so that our commission actually set a goal by 2050 to get that to zero, and by 2035, cut it down by 50 percent.”
Paramanantham said out of 4,300 fatalities across the state last year, the number-one cause is speeding. Others are driving under the influence and driving without a seat belt. TxDOT is not just focusing on engineering, but education as well.
“We are with you in the race to get to zero and we’ll be partners,” Paramanantham said.
TxDOT sees U.S. 377 as a fast-growing roadway. It starts at Red River and goes all the way down south to Laredo. TxDOT has recently begun a study to look at the entire corridor. They are going to come up with projects that primarily look at safety and mobility over time.
As Texas grows, TxDOT may not be able to stay with two lanes but may have to eventually look at four lanes. Paramanantham said building four lanes costs millions of dollars.
“We may have to plan this as short-term, mid-term and long-term,” he said.
Paramanantham said the team at TxDOT has looked at Wells’ request and has agreed that a short-term solution can be done. They decided to look at speed and add a turning lane. He said the good thing is, TxDOT currently has a contract on a project to overlay U.S. 377 from U.S. 82 intersection all the way to the Oklahoma bridge.
Henderson said the biggest challenge is the excessive amount of driveways down U.S. 377. TxDOT is proposing to carry on the two-way turn lane that is located north on U.S. 377 (right after Taco Casa and before Golden Chick). He said they are proposing to carry that two-way left turn lane north to pass onto Bones Chapel Road. They would be able to do this by eliminating the shoulders of the road to expand for the left turn lane.
Samuels said a policy called 85th Percentile is conducted nationwide to determine what traffic is doing. They take the speed of the 85th percentile driver (the reasonable and prudent driver), along with other factors, to determine what the speed limit would be for that area. This law has been adopted into the Texas Administrative Code. There are things TxDOT can do to mitigate the speed limit, but it is only a maximum of 12 MPH that they would be able to get the speed limit lowered.
Patterson asked how long is the standard amount of time to perform the study. Samuels said the speed study is done for two hours or 125 cars that pass, whichever comes first if it is done live. When the study is not done live, they leave the counters out on the road for four hours.
Mayor Blaylock said he has become aware that many truckers pass down U.S. 377 to bypass I-35 to ‘dodge the scales’ and avoid weigh stations. He said because of the high level of traffic on U.S. 377 he has noticed, coming out of Dennards and First State Bank, that location is getting ready to be the next big catastrophe area.
Blaylock said the Whitesboro City Council requested a speed check be done there because of the new building that will be built. This includes the 4th Street extension that will open up to U.S. 377.
Wells voiced her gratitude for the options TxDOT presented, and voiced her concern about the urgency of the issue.
“In my opinion, we don’t have a long time,” Wells said. She said the Hard Rock Casino will be done in two years. Additionally, there is a community, Point Vista, being built that will be huge, as well as Pilot Point and Tioga growth. She pointed out that many of these people coming in to travel from all of these locations will choose to take U.S. 377 because of the convenience and I-75 also being a nightmare.
Dockery said although he has stopped many for speeding, there have been people that just don’t care anymore. Speed is a big issue on this highway.
Samuels said after performing the 85th Percentile study, TxDOT will be able to reduce the speed limit to 65 MPH and might even be able to lower the speed to 60 MPH in some locations. TxDOT needs to turn the study into the Traffic Division, and the commission wants it at least a month before they look at it.
TxDOT has contracted to repave U.S. 377. In this overlay project, they will include adding a left turn lane to start after Golden Chick and run all the way to after Bones Chapel Road (after the small bridge where the city limit sign is located). They are estimating the roads will be paved out and restriped by November of this year. TxDOT is planning on performing another study after restriping and adding the two-way turn lane. They plan on doing this at the start of 2025.
Thinking further into the future, TxDOT will have multiple meetings with stakeholders and local communities up and down U.S. 377. At these meetings, they will discuss each community’s internal plans, where the growth is happening and where they think the problem areas are.
Paramanantham said this will be a bit more in-depth and will take place for the next 10 to 20 years. This way, TxDOT can get more input. This study is yet to take place.