This fall, students trying to get onto SH-114 toward Dallas will find themselves blocked by construction barriers. On the other side of the highway, the former University of Dallas exit has disappeared altogether.
This construction is part of the Signature Bridge and Irving Interchange projects to overhaul the major highway interchanges around the UD campus.
The Signature Bridge project began this fall and is expected to be complete by September 2019, according to Donna Simmons, a Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) spokesperson.
The city of Irving is improving frontage roads and building a bridge across SH-114 by the former Texas Stadium in order to prepare for future development, according to a TxDOT fact sheet. TxDOT is currently removing frontage roads, conducting roadway excavation and prepping the 132,667 square feet of retaining walls.
Depending on weather, the frontage road and UD exit should reopen next spring, wrote Simmons.
Future development around UD, called the Irving Interchange project, will reconstruct the interchanges at SH-183, SH-114, Loop 12, and Spur 482. This $521.5 million dollar project is set for completion by 2022.
According to Simmons, the city of Irving will complete the connection on both sides of the Signature Bridge as it develops these highway interchanges around UD.
In the meantime, the construction has inconvenienced UD students who commute to and from campus. Alex Diaz is an education major who travels to a nearby elementary school to log observation hours.
“I am a new driver on the highways in Irving … [Driving on 114,] I encounter a lot of difficulty where things are closed off and it takes me a lot longer to get back to the school sometimes,” Diaz said. “I definitely get lost quite a bit with just the confusion of 114, and I hate the Loop 12 area.”
