Permanent Relief In Sight For Drivers Of Dallas Mixmaster
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DALLAS (CBS11) - For decades, drivers have dealt with slowdowns getting in and out of downtown Dallas on the Mixmaster.
The interchange connects two of the most traveled interstates in Texas: I-35 East and I-30. With nearly half a million drivers commuting through the Mixmaster each weekday, Dallas residents like Otis Cobb and Matt Bielamowicz are no stranger to delays in the area.
"It could be rolling good, but it could not be," Cobb said.
"If you can avoid it, that is what you will do," Bielamowicz said.
Even the Texas Department of Transportation agrees the old configuration was confusing and did not allow for traffic to move smoothly.
Dianne Tordillo, who works for the Dallas Horseshoe Project, said the old design of exiting on the left for 30W from the southbound lanes of 35E just did not allow traffic to move smoothly in the area.
"For decades that has been a left exit, so people were merging last minute to get to that left exit," Tordillo said.
Now the exit for 30W is on the right, which has allowed for fewer bottlenecks on 35E South.
The project also changed the exit to Reunion Blvd from Northbound 35E from a left exit to a right exit. Project managers say drivers can expect more ramps and exits to change before construction is completed, including a new ramp which connects drivers from eastbound 30 to southbound 35E and a ramp which connects drivers northbound on 35E to I-30 West.
Before these ramps were in place, drivers had to exit onto city streets to access other interstate directions, but now they can stay on the main lanes of the interstates.
"In order to accommodate that growth, we are expanding traffic capacity," Tordillo said.
The project will also widen 35E and 30 to a total of 23 lanes.
Drivers are looking forward to the finished product. "I hope it will be nice, you will think of how bad it use to be and now it will just be bad, instead of really bad," Bielamowicz said.
Construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of the summer.
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