DALLAS, TX — With golden scissors poised over a large ribbon, a quick cut by Texas Transportation Commissioner Robert C. Vaughn and state and local leaders marked the ceremonial end of the I-635 East project.
The Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) $1.7 billion project has transformed an 11-mile corridor between U.S. 75 and I-30, spanning through the cities of Dallas, Garland, and Mesquite. Construction began in 2020, and improvements included adding a general-purpose lane in each direction, rebuilding the managed lanes and improved frontage roads, and providing connections to surrounding communities.
More than 200,000 vehicles travel the corridor each day, making the project a major milestone in the state’s Texas Clear Lanes effort to address congestion in Texas’ largest metropolitan areas. While vehicles traveled through the corridor every day, the project team kept traffic flowing as new bridges, lanes, and safety improvements took shape.
“The transformation of this corridor is a shining example of our Texas Clear Lanes efforts,” Vaughn said. “The aggressive approach to put so many miles of I-635 under construction at the same time underscores the tremendous need to tackle the growing congestion here. This all-in approach rather than separate projects allowed savings in time and money.”
- 1,649,597 square feet of retaining walls constructed, enough to cover 29 football fields
- 111,161,739 pounds of reinforced steel used, equivalent to the weight of 31 Eiffel Towers
- 2,580,970 square yards of concrete poured, covering nearly four times the area of Central Park
- 295,655 linear feet of girders placed, almost enough to stretch from Dallas to Fort Worth and back
- 39,955,784 pounds of structural steel utilized, equivalent to the weight of 133 adult blue whales
