Current and historic endpoints of US 180 around Fort Worth, TX

Photo credits: James Allen; Justin Cozart; Steven Nelson

The original east end of US 180 was in Weatherford, but not at the same place it ends today. There was no I-20 at the time, so it was US 80 that went west out of Ft. Worth to serve Weatherford. On the west side of town, where US 80 angled southwest towards Abilene, US 180 began by heading slightly northwest towards Mineral Wells. Today old US 80 through Weatherford is designated US 180. What is designated TX Spur 312 today is the original route of US 80, and where that splits off US 180 was once the east beginning of that route. The photo below is looking west on US 180:

Nelson, Apr. 2006

That was once westbound US 80, which continued to the left, and the beginning of US 180 was to the right.

The east end of US 180 was extended in 1949, concurrent with US 80 through Ft. Worth to a little community called Handley (which has long since been annexed into the Ft. Worth city limits). Why this was done is not obvious. It would've made sense to co-sign US 180 with US 80 to junction US 81 in downtown Ft. Worth, but why would you multiplex a route for its last ~30 miles, only to have it end in a miniscule burg like Handley? Yet the records are clear that this is exactly what happened, and the maps agree:

TX DoT, c. 1958

Although I-820 is shown on that map (the north-south freeway), you can't conclude that US 180 ended there, because it hadn't been built in 1949. So what's the explanation? Steven thinks he's found the answer in some old highway planning maps for the DFW area, and I think his theory makes sense. A 1967 map indicates that US 80 and US 180 (co-signed eastward from Weatherford) were to part ways again near the vicinity of today's I-30/University Drive junction. US 80 was to follow I-30 up into downtown, then Lancaster Av (today's TX 180) eastward into Dallas. US 180 was to follow a planned freeway skirting the south edge of downtown, roughly along Rosedale Street. That would've rejoined US 80 in Handley, and that's where US 180 would've ended.

However - since the proposed "US 180 freeway" was never built - my question is: was US 180 ever actually signed as far east as Handley? I'm a little skeptical that it was. Let me know if you have evidence to the contrary, but it just wouldn't have made any sense. US 180 east of downtown Ft. Worth could've been just a "paper" designation that was never actually posted.

US 180 was truncated to a point in western Ft. Worth in 1979 - perhaps when it became apparent that no highway was ever going to be built along the south edge of downtown. Where exactly was its endpoint? TXDoT records are explicit on this: it was at what is now I-30's interchange 2, where TX Spur 580 splits off. Which raises the question again: why there? A little background might help to explain:

When the interstates were first commissioned through DFW, I-30 ended at I-20 east of downtown Dallas (at today's junction of I-30 and US 80), and the freeway that runs between the city centers was designated I-20. This freeway was initially a toll road. Later, I-20 traffic was routed around the south loop (as it is today), and the I-30 designation was extended west through Dallas and Ft. Worth (as today), along what had been I-20. However, at first, modern I-20 between exits 421 and 428 didn't exist. Instead, from exit 421, I-20 traffic was routed east on what is now I-30; then east on today's Spur 580; then south on I-820. So at the time, the west beginning of I-30 was at what is now I-30's exit 2. US 180 was co-signed with US 80 to this point, but US 80 continued eastward on its own, through Fort Worth and Dallas. Here's how that scene appears today:

Nelson, Apr. 2006

Today that's eastbound I-30, approaching the Spur 580 exit. But this used to be I-20/US 80/US 180 - all of which continued to the right along Spur 580 - and I-30 began to the left ahead. So why did TXDoT co-sign US 180 to this point? One possibility is: the tolls were soon to be removed from I-30, so maybe they planned to reroute US 80 onto that freeway, and then extend US 180 along what had been US 80 (Lancaster Av, Division St, etc). At any rate, what ended up happening is US 80 simply stayed on its historic route for a few more years. So it was pointless to co-sign US 180 east of Weatherford, and they truncated the route to its current terminus. (What's kind of ironic about all this now is that neither US 80 nor US 180 actually make it to the city limits of Dallas or Ft. Worth, and there is no longer any US route running between the two cities. That entire historic segment of US 80 has been renumbered as TX 180.)

It was 1991 when the east end of US 180 was truncated to its present terminus in Hudson Oaks TX (just east of Weatherford):

James doctored up that aerial photo of the intersection, and offers the following description:

"If you come in on eastbound US 180, you are given a choice of taking a ramp to westbound I-20 (A), taking a ramp onto eastbound I-20 (B), or going straight (C), which eventually leads to a turnaround that takes you back on westbound US 180."

The photo below was taken from the location marked "2" on the map above. James says, "This is a shot of the entire intersection. You can see the eastbound US 180 to eastbound I-20 ramp in the foreground, then mainline I-20, then the westbound I-20 to westbound US 180 offramp."

Allen, May 2001

So the overhead signage at far right is for the east beginning of US 180. That's also visible in the distance in the shot below, taken from westbound I-20:

Cozart, May 2003

Pretty cool: you can see how I-20 sits on top of the old US 180 alignment, which continues on its own straight ahead. The photo below shows the first westbound US 180 sign, located approximately at "1" on the map above:

Allen, May 2001

Info and photos regarding the current and historic western endpoints of US 180 can be viewed on my main US 180 page.