Office of Operations
photos of traffic merging onto congested highway, congestion in snowstorm, variable message sign, cargo, variable speed limit sign in a work zone, and a freeway at night
21st Century Operations Using 21st Century Technologies

Traffic Bottlenecks

Combating Bottlenecks

Texas

Until a long-range fix can occur, Texas will use auxiliary lanes to collect and disperse traffic from the heavy mainline volumes on SH 183.

Background: Running along the southern border of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, State Highway 183 carries a lot of traffic. The long range plan is to reconstruct this freeway, but until that occurs a couple of bottlenecks were identified on which action could be taken quickly to smooth the traffic flow.

Bottleneck Project: SH 183 between SH 360 and SH 161. The connectors from SH 161 to SH 183 were 2 lanes but connect as a single lane merging entrance WB and a single lane diverging exit EB. Also, SH 360 had a single lane merging onto SH 183 EB and a single lane diverging off of SH 183. Adding a single auxiliary from SH 360 to SH 161 both EB & WB should smooth the traffic flow at the connections to SH 360. To relieve the remaining congestion, an additional auxiliary from SH 161 to the DFW airport connectors should reduce the severe congestion for both SH 183 and the connectors to and from SH 161. Since then, two auxiliary lanes each direction have been constructed and are open to traffic both eastbound and westbound between the SH 161 and International Parkway interchange connections. An additional lane is being planned for both eastbound and westbound directions between the SH 360 and International Parkway interchange connections within the schematic being prepared for proposed improvements to SH 121/SH 183 from IH 820 to SH 161.