All-ETC Toll Gantries Going Up Along SH 161

Drivers in Irving, Grand Prairie and beyond soon will have a clear path from State Highway (SH) 183 south to Interstate Highway (IH) 20 thanks to construction progress on SH 161.

Phase 2 of SH 161 is expected to open to traffic in late summer after installation of all-electronic toll collection (all-ETC) equipment by the NTTA.  It includes two main lanes and the service roads in each direction between SH 183 and IH-30.  Phase 3 will add a third lane in each direction.

The all-ETC gantry construction is the NTTA’s first construction contract on the future tollway, which connects with the Authority’s President George Bush Turnpike to the north. The gantry contract was fast-tracked to meet the commitments of the project agreement between the NTTA and by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). 

Phase 1, the frontage roads between IH-30 and IH-20, is substantially complete and open to traffic. The fourth and final phase, construction of the main lanes between IH-30 and IH-20, is a design-build project now in the contractor selection stage.

The Phase 2 gantries – eight ramp gantries and one main lane gantry – will support the equipment that facilitates toll collection, including high-speed cameras, lights and transponder readers that collect user data as vehicles pass beneath.

The NTTA awarded the nearly $4 million contract for construction of the gantries, along with grading and sign structures from north of Egyptian Way to north of Conflans Road, in March 2009. Construction began in April 2009.

The SH 161 corridor project will result in a new, approximately 11.5-mile link in the growing loop around Dallas. The project was initiated in May 1969 by TxDOT, which conducted the initial corridor studies, processed the Environmental Impact Statement and obtained the right of way for the project.