| More advance signage for Lovers Lane. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| This "butterfly" style gantry sits at the DNT exit northbound for Lovers Lane. The area around this exit is ecclectic with many small shops and the old Inwood Theatre, known for its great midnight movies on the weekends. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The next exit northbound on the tollway is for Northwest Highway, Loop 12. The first section of the road to be constructed was built up to this point in December of 1967, when all traffic had to exit. The DNT was built over old railroad right-of-way, which was very narrow. Some adjacent houses had to be purchased and demolished, but the right of way is still very narrow. Today, it is unlikely the DNT can ever be widened because of the very close-in nature of its surroundings in this area, and million dollar-plus houses to each side. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The DNT northbound at Northwest Highway. A crop of 20-ish story skyscrapers sits here at this exit and is known as Preston Center. Preston Center has one of the highest occupancy rates for offices in the Dallas area, and is known for being the most expensive area to rent office space in. The area is getting ever denser with more residential and office construction ongoing. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| After Northwest Highway, the close infill nature of the surroundings spreads out just a bit. This area is called Preston Hollow, and is (like Highland Park and University Park just to the south) one of the most exclusive areas of Dallas to reside in. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| More advance signage for Walnut Hill. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The DNT northbound at Walnut Hill. This area of the DNT, from Northwest Highway up to IH 635, was opened in the summer of 1968. At that time, the toll for the entire route was 50 cents. It was considered quite expensive at that time. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The DNT northbound at Royal Ln. Royal is suburban arterial through North Dallas, and runs from the DFW airport area in the west all the way to IH 635 in the east. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The next northbound exit is at Forest, another suburban arterial. As seen in this photo, the infrastructure in this area looks very dated and 60s. Originally concrete, the Tollway was asphalted in stages from 2002-2005. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| Another advance sign for Forest. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The DNT northbound at Forest. Early efforts to rename the DNT as the "Dwight D. Eisenhower Tollway" failed. If it had succeeded, the Republican Toll road would have met the Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson freeway just a few miles ahead! Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The DNT northbound past Forest has a much wider right of way that just a few miles south. A Large power-line corridor runs along it for much of its length through here, a legacy from when this route was a railroad. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The half-diamond at Harvest Hill is the next exit. Harvest Hill is a short road with townhomes and office parks that connects in the east to Preston, the old main route to the north. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The last exit northbound before IH 635 is Galleria/Alpha. Motorists should exit here to access the Galleria, Dallas’ largest mall. This exit was added in a large construction project in 1984 that also saw the addition of an elevated frontage road structure. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The DNT northbound at IH 635, LBJ Freeway. This intersection was built as a cloverleaf in 1968, the year both roads opened. It remains one of the few cloverleafs left in the DFW area. No control points are given, seemingly common at most 3-digit loop freeways in this region. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The DNT northbound at IH 635 west. This intersection is a cloverleaf and opened in 1968 - apart from some shoulder enhancements and frontage road additions, the interchange has not changed very much since. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The next northbound exit is for Spring Valley / Quorum / Verde Valley. The latter two streets are minor and serve to connect the adjacent business district to the Tollroad. From this point, north of IH 635, the DNT is much newer than the original 1968 construction. The stretch from IH 635 north to Belt Line opened on December 3, 1986. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The Philip Johnson designed Saks Fifth Avenue facade at the Galleria is visible on the right of this photo, as the DNT glides past Dallas' largest shopping mall. The cameras on this gantry were installed in 2005 and serve to monitor traffic conditions on the road. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The DNT northbound at Spring Valley. This marks the beginning of the large Addison commercial district, complete with many corporate headquarters and large regional offices. Also here, one of the power line corridors that has followed the DNT for a period of a few miles veers away to the west. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| A view of the DNT north of Spring Valley, showing various office towers. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| Advance signage for the next exit at Belt Line / Arapaho. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The DNT northbound at Belt Line / Arapaho, the corporate headquarters of Pizza Hut can be seen to the left. Belt Line forms a 96-mile loop around Dallas County and is one of the most important arterials in the metroplex. This particular section of Belt Line runs into the suburb of Addison and its famous restaurant row, featuring just about every possible type of dining choice. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| Another view of the office towers adjacent to the road, this view includes the corporate headquarters for CompUSA on the left, and Greyhound Bus lines on the right. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| Passing under Belt Line, the advance signage for the next exit at Keller Springs is shown. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The sunken section just north of Belt Line was an engineering headache. Delays meant that this section of the road opened a bit later than expected, in 1987. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| This sign warns of the second northbound mainline toll plaza on the DNT at Keller Springs. The circular T logo means that the left two lanes are for electronic tolltag users only. The governing body of the road, the NTTA, plans to eliminate all toll plazas in the future and move to an all-automated system. The Keller Springs Toll Plaza is especially backed up at peak periods, causing a bottleneck that can persist for many miles in each direction. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The sunken section continues and heads under the Cotton Belt Railroad. The Addison Circle urban district is just to the left of this photo. This particular Cotton Belt line was purchased by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) authority and is undergoing studies to turn it into a light rail line. If approved and built, it would be one of the few tangential (suburb-to-suburb) light rail lines in the nation. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| Before the Keller Springs Toll plaza, another overhead sign indicates to motorists that the left two lanes are for TollTag users only. Keller Springs / Westgrove drivers must exit here. Keller Springs runs west to the Addison Airport toll tunnel, also run by the NTTA. The tunnel takes motorists under Addison Airport, and opened in February of 1999. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The Keller Springs Toll plaza, opened in 1987. This view looks north through the TollTag only lanes. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| This view looks north along the DNT before Trinity Mills / Briargrove. The far right lane was added in 2005 and extends north of the toll plaza to Trinity Mills. The Frankford sign on the left is in the new Clearview font, and makes it clear that the NTTA (like TxDot) is moving to use the new type style to replace Highway Gothic. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| More advance signage before Trinity Mills / Briargrove. This new Clearview sign was attached to the old Highway Gothic gantry, giving the overhead sign's support structure a "too big" look. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The DNT northbound at Trinity Mills / Briargrove. Trinity Mills Rd roughly follows the border between Dallas and Collin Counties, and this is where the DNT moves into Dallas County's northern neighbor. There are no noticable signs along the route, however, marking county boundaries. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| Advance signage for the next exit at Frankford / Haverwood. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The DNT northbound at Frankford / Haverwood. Frankford runs west through Carrollton to end at an exit along IH 35E, and east into Richardson. Haverwood is simply a minor residential street, and by most accounts does not even belong on the sign. The author surmises that an influential NTTA employee must have lived on that street at some point. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The President George Bush Turnpike (PGBT) is the next exit along the DNT, and is indicated by signage just past Frankford. "President" is prominently featured in the title of the road because the name was added to the proposed road in 1994 before George W. Bush became president. At that time, it was added to distinguish between the ex-President and the then governor. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| This sign shows the next two exits along the road, and the photo includes the newer Tollbooth "brick" style, that exists between here and Plano. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| The exit for the PGBT. The PGBT marks the boundary between Dallas and the northern affluent suburb of Plano. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| This view looks north at the symmetrical stack between the DNT and the PGBT, the two main roads that are managed by the NTTA. This stack opened in 1998. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| While still within the city limits of Dallas, the exit for Plano Parkway appears. Plano Parkway runs along the southern side of Plano, for almost the entire length of the city. It provides a good low-traffic (usually) alternative to the PGBT. The added on sign refers to the fact that a TollTag store and NTTA offices are at this exit, just to the east. Photo taken 09/30/07. |
| Photo taken 09/30/07. |
Page Updated January 30, 2008.
