The High Five Interchange, a fixture on the Dallas road scene for years now, is pretty much completed. Let’s take a look at it.
Dallas High Five Interchange flyovers.
The High Five is located at US 75 and IH 635 in North Dallas. This freeway interchange was for years one of the worst bottlenecks in Dallas. Now, several hundred million dollars and many gallons of beige paint later, it is one of the worst bottlenecks in Dallas. Click for larger images.
The stack is about as tall as a 12 story building, it contains over 60 lane miles of roadway, 300,000 square feet of retaining walls, and 74,000 feet of drainage pipes.
The only part of the project not completed yet are some of the HOV lane connections, like this central flyover on US 75. This is due to the fact that there are not yet any HOV lanes for it to connect to, and to open it now would just be silly.
This photo shows construction in 2004. 37 new bridges were constructed, with 2.3 million square feet of bridge deck. It was actually completed 13 months ahead of its 60 month schedule, and won 4 awards just for that.
Here is a 2003 photo, showing the tallest bridges being connected along with some freaky scaffolding stairs.
The yellow device was the “segment assembly machine”, which was responsible for sticking everything together while at the same time reminding the author of the scary machine from the Chemical Brothers Believe video.
Looking south at the High Five Interchange construction in 2003
This is a view from 2002, showing the first bridge segment being constructed.
The high five replaced this partial cloverleaf / stack thing that was finished in 1968. The author enjoyed the left exit tabs here as a child. Here is a view when construction was just getting started in 2002. Dallas was getting a new stack, and I was about to get a new camera.
You said before construction of the High 5, this stack was one of Dallas’s worst bottlenecks, after construction has anything beyond its aesthetic nature improved? lack of connection HOV lanes of course notwithstanding.
Honestly, not really… and the lack of HOV connection is a big deal. I think the suburban sprawl (McKinney, just up US 75 is America’s fastest growing suburb this year) has just kept up pace with the infrastructure improvements.
I also happen to think HOV lanes are preposterous.