President George Bush Turnpike

Pres. George Bush Turnpike marker
Pres. George Bush Turnpike
Map
Route information
Maintained by NTTA (main lanes) and TxDOT (frontage roads)
Length54.9 mi[1] (88.4 km)
Existed1998[2][3]–present
Component
highways
SH 161 Toll from Irving to Grand Prairie
Major junctions
Counterclockwise end I-20 in Grand Prairie
Major intersections
Clockwise end I-30 / US 67 in Garland
Location
CountryUnited States
StateTexas
Highway system
SH 160SH 161 SH 162
US 190SH 190 SH 191

The President George Bush Turnpike (PGBT) is a 52-mile (84 km)[4] controlled-access toll road running through the northern, northeastern and western suburbs, forming a partial beltway around Dallas, Texas, United States. It is named for the late George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States. At its west end near Belt Line Road in Irving, State Highway 161 (SH 161) continues southwest to I-20 in Grand Prairie. The discontinuous free frontage roads along the turnpike from I-35E in Carrollton east to its end at I-30 in Garland are assigned the State Highway 190 (SH 190) designation. SH 190 signage appears only along the Rowlett, Garland, Richardson, Plano, and Carrollton sections of the frontage road with the undersign "frontage road only". At intersections with city streets, only the Bush Turnpike signs are displayed, not the SH 190 signage. Prior to the construction of the main lanes as a tollway, SH 190 was used as the name of the planned main lanes too. Similarly, the part west of I-35E was planned as part of SH 161. Bush Turnpike is signed as a north–south road from I-20 to I-35E (the "Western Extension"), an east–west road from I-35E to the Merritt Main Lane Gantry (the original sections) and as a north–south road from the Merritt Main Lane Gantry to I-30 (the "Eastern Extension"), as Bush Turnpike makes a nearly 90-degree curve in both places.

The turnpike is operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority. Currently, all maintenance is done under a five-year total routine maintenance contract with Roy Jorgensen Associates, Inc. based in Buckeystown, Maryland, that started in November 2011.

The turnpike passes through three Texas counties (Dallas, Collin and Denton) and nine Dallas suburbs (Rowlett, Sachse, Garland, Richardson, Plano, Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Irving, and Grand Prairie).

Originally the President George Bush Turnpike was equipped with traditional toll plazas for cash payment as well as RFID-based TollTag express lanes. However, on July 1, 2009, the cash plazas were closed and replaced with "ZipCash", an OCR-based camera system which reads the license plate and bills the owner by mail. This made the turnpike the first in the United States to transition to all-electronic toll collection.[5] The ZipCash rates, however, come at a premium being significantly higher than both the TollTag rate and the earlier cash prices.[5]

  1. ^ "President George Bush Turnpike" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
  2. ^ Transportation Planning and Programming Division (n.d.). "State Highway No. 161". Highway Designation Files. Texas Department of Transportation.
  3. ^ Transportation Planning and Programming Division (n.d.). "State Highway No. 190". Highway Designation Files. Texas Department of Transportation.
  4. ^ North Texas Tollway Authority. "About Our Roadways". North Texas Tollway Authority. Archived from the original on July 25, 2010.
  5. ^ a b Nguyen, Kim (June 28, 2009). "Life in the fast lane: Bush Turnpike converts to cashless toll collection to improve traffic flow". Plano Star-Courier.