Interstate 27
Encyclopedia
Interstate 27 is an intrastate Interstate Highway, located entirely in the U.S. state
of Texas
, running north from Lubbock to Interstate 40 in Amarillo. These two cities are the only control cities
on I-27; other cities and towns served by I-27 include (from south to north) New Deal, Abernathy, Hale Center, Plainview, Kress, Tulia, Happy, and Canyon. In Amarillo, I-27 is commonly known as the Canyon Expressway. The entire length of I-27 replaced U.S. Highway 87 for through traffic.
's Plainview Subdivision, which splits from its Chicago
-Southern California
Transcon line at Canyon and runs south to Lubbock. A large amount of the alignment is on former US 87, but several portions through built-up areas have been bypassed, as well as two longer areas where US 87 still follows the old road.
The Interstate begins at a point along the four-lane US 87 freeway south of downtown Lubbock. Mile 0 is posted near 77th Street, about five blocks south of Loop 289. Exit number
ing begins just to the south, with exit 1 at the 82nd Street interchange; the freeway becomes six lanes at its north end. The Loop 289 interchange is a cloverleaf between the one-way frontage road
s of each highway, and with direct ramps from I-27 south to Loop 289 west (exit 1A) and Loop 289 east to I-27 north. U.S. Highway 84 (Avenue Q and Slaton Highway) crosses I-27 at a split diamond interchange, with an extra approach from the northeast carrying U.S. Highway 87 Business (Avenue A) into the junction. Exit 1B connects I-27 south to US 84 and the Loop 289 frontage roads, while all traffic from US 87 north to US 84, US 87 Business, or Loop 289 must use exit 1 for 82nd Street.
The six-lane cross section that began at exit 1 remains through Lubbock. Major junctions in that city include U.S. Highway 62/State Highway 114
(19th Street, exit 3) and U.S. Highway 82 (4th Street, exit 4), which is also the north end of US 87 Business. Between these two interchanges, the frontage roads temporarily end as I-27 crosses over a rail line. Spur 326 (Avenue Q) merges with I-27 at exit 6A, and exit 6B is a split diamond with Loop 289. The outer lanes leave at Farm to Market Road 2641 (Regis Street, exit 8), reducing I-27 to two lanes in each direction as it passes Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport
and leaves the city.
I-27 crosses over the Plainview Sub for the first time north of Farm to Market Road 1294 (Drew Street, exit 11), and another short gap exists in the frontage roads there. North of the overpass, the frontage roads are two-way; I-27 then passes through New Deal, bypassing the central part of the town to the west. Old US 87 between exits 13 and 15 is now Loop 461; at exit 15, I-27 begins to parallel the rail line, just to its west. Along this part of the highway, and other similar portions, slip ramps still connect the main lanes with the frontage roads, but intersecting roads pass over all four roadways and the railroad on a long bridge; a pair of two-way roadways connects the frontage roads to the crossroad, with the one on the east crossing the railroad at-grade.
As it approaches Abernathy, I-27 curves west away from the Plainview Sub. The old main road through the city, between exits 20 and 22, is now Loop 369; I-27 passes through 1.5 blocks to the east. Despite I-27's location north of Abernathy, 1/2 mile (1 km) west of the rail line, all interchanges between Abernathy and Hale Center, except the one at Farm to Market Road
(exit 24), use the same configuration where the intersecting road crosses over all roadways. Approaching Hale Center, I-27 curves northeast as it splits from Farm to Market Road 1424 (exit 36) at a simple diamond interchange
. The freeway passes through the city one block east of the old road, now I-27 Business, which is accessed at exits 36 and 38. As it leaves Hale Center, I-27 turns to the northeast, following the northwest side of the rail line.
The next two interchanges along the railroad between Hale Center and Plainview use the same style, in which the crossroad goes over everything. I-27 Business
splits at exit 45, a modified Y interchange, to pass through Plainview, and I-27 travels west of that city on a bypass. The two outer interchanges on this bypass, Farm to Market Road 3466 (exit 48) and Quincy Street (exit 51), are handled in the same way as the interchanges along the railroad, but the other two, U.S. Highway 70 (exit 49) and State Highway 194 (exit 50), are standard diamonds. Between exits 49 and 50 is another overpass over the frontage roads - 24th Street — with no separate slip ramps. I-27 Business ends at a trumpet interchange (exit 53) north of Plainview, where I-27 again begins to parallel the Plainview Sub to the west. Both interchanges between this one and the first split with US 87 (exit 61), a modified Y south of Kress, continue the pattern with the crossroad bridging over everything.
After it leaves US 87, I-27 is no longer next to the rail line, but it continues to handle interchanges as it does alongside the line, except at State Highway 86
(exit 74), a standard diamond that serves Tulia. US 87 rejoins the freeway at a modified diamond (exit 77) north of Tulia, at which I-27 crosses to the east side of the Plainview Sub before paralleling it to that side. After several of the typical interchanges adjacent to the railroad, US 87 splits again at a modified Y (exit 88) south of Happy. Except for the northernmost one, all of the interchanges on the bypass of Happy and Canyon are diamonds; there is a break in the frontage road north of Farm to Market Road 3331 (exit 108), where I-27 crosses the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River
. Exits 109 (Buffalo Stadium Road) and 110 (US 87 south, US 60 west) are integrated, with some access to one road provided via the other.
I-27 is overlapped by US 60 and US 87 from exit 110 north of Canyon to the end of the Interstate in Amarillo; here the frontage roads are one-way. Several near the south end are handled by bridging the intersecting road over all roadways, but, once I-27 crosses Loop 335 (exit 116), almost all interchanges are diamonds. At exit 119A, which marks the south end of the six-lane cross section in Amarillo, Hillside Road passes under both the main lanes and the frontage roads, with two ramps providing partial access. Other connections with Hillside Road are made via Western Street (exit 119B), which crosses the frontage roads at grade. The end of I-27 at Interstate 40 (exit 123B) is a fully directional turbine interchange; U.S. Highway 287 also passes through, using I-40 to the east and US 60/US 87 to the north. Four lanes continue beyond I-40, and are joined by several from the I-40 ramps, making the northernmost portion of the Canyon Expressway five lanes in each direction. Several blocks beyond I-40, the highway ends at a split into two one-way pair
s. Northbound traffic feeds onto Fillmore Street (US 87 north) and Buchanan Street (US 60 east and US 287 north), while southbound traffic approaches on Taylor Street (US 287 south) and Pierce Street (US 60 west and US 87 south). The rightmost of the five northbound lanes is barrier-separated from the rest, forcing traffic exiting I-40 west onto Buchanan Street. Through the I-40 interchange and the split, the frontage roads are discontinuous.
began in 1929 near Plainview, and was almost complete by 1940, with only about 8 miles (13 km) south of Canyon still bituminous surfaced until later that decade. The Canyon Expressway, a freeway upgrade of US 87 (also US 60 there) between Canyon and Amarillo, was built in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This highway, with a design speed
of 45 miles per hour (70 km/h), included frontage road
s along its entire length, and ended in each city with a wye junction: the split of US 60 and US 87 in Canyon, and a split between the two one-way pair
s of Taylor and Fillmore Streets and Pierce and Buchanan Streets in Amarillo. The Dumas Expressway, a freeway upgrade of US 87 north from Amarillo, opened several years later, feeding into the same one-way pairs.
Four-laning of US 87 from Canyon to Lubbock was completed in the late 1960s, with the last section to be widened lying between Abernathy and Lubbock. While this was built as a surface divided highway
south of Canyon, short sections of freeway were built through New Deal, Abernathy, and Hale Center, and interchange
s were built at U.S. Highway 70 and State Highway 194 on the new bypass of Plainview and at State Highway 86
(towards the west) south of Tulia. The original two-lane road, where bypassed, became Loop 461 (New Deal, 1968, marked as US 87 Business), Loop 369 (Abernathy, 1962), a local street (Hale Center), and Loop 445 (Plainview, 1967, marked as US 87 Business).
Interstate 27 was not part of the original Interstate Highway System
chosen in the 1950s; the spur from I-40 to Lubbock was authorized with the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968, which added 1500 miles (2400 km) to the system. George H. Mahon
, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1935 to 1979 and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee after 1964, helped secure funding for the road. Texas officially designated the highway in early 1969, originally running from U.S. Highway 62 near downtown Lubbock to I-40 in Amarillo; the definition was extended south through Lubbock to the south side of the loop in early 1976. The existing freeway sections, including the Canyon Expressway, were absorbed into I-27, despite not being built to Interstate standards. New construction began in 1975, from Lubbock north to New Deal, and most of the freeway was completed in the 1980s. Two long sections of US 87 were bypassed: Happy to Canyon on December 5, 1986, and Kress to Tulia soon after; I-27 was complete north of Lubbock by 1988. Most of the Happy-Canyon bypass was built along the two-lane Farm to Market Road 1541, which now ends at exit 103 southeast of Canyon.
The final section of I-27 to be built was through Lubbock, inside Loop 289; this was built in the early 1990s, and completed on September 3, 1992. On that day, a ceremony at the 34th Street overpass opened the road from 19th Street (US 62) to 54th Street, completing Texas's 3200-mile (5100 km) portion of the Interstate Highway System. At its south end, the new I-27 connected to an existing freeway upgrade of US 87, built about 1970 to a traffic circle
at US 84 (just north of Loop 289). The old route of US 87 through Lubbock became U.S. Highway 87 Business upon completion of I-27. Two business loops of I-27 have been designated: through Plainview (former Loop 445) in early 1991, and through Hale Center (formerly a local street) in 2002.
The completion of I-27, costing a total of $453.4 million, encouraged growth along the highway: towards the north side of Lubbock and the southwest in Amarillo; Canyon has become a suburb
of Amarillo. Plainview, the largest city between Lubbock and Amarillo, has the only significant retail cluster outside the two terminal cities, and has attracted several industries. On the other hand, Tulia, once a self-contained community with local businesses, was bypassed by I-27, and residents must now drive elsewhere for most shopping needs.
, passed in 1998, designated I-27 as part of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor, a High Priority Corridor from Mexico
at Laredo to Denver. This corridor, planned for upgrading but not as a freeway, crosses I-20 at Big Spring and Midland (via a split), and I-10 at Sonora. It also forms part of the Great Plains International Trade Corridor, continuing north to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The part of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor within Texas is a proposed Trans-Texas Corridor
.
of Texas
. It stretches 1.168 miles (1.880 km) along Main Street through Hale Center, between exits 36 and 38 of I-27. It was bypassed in about 1962, but was turned over to the city until April 5, 2002, when the new business route was authorized. Along the way, it intersects Farm to Market Road 1914 (Cleveland Street).
|}
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, running north from Lubbock to Interstate 40 in Amarillo. These two cities are the only control cities
Control city
A control city is a city or locality posted on a traffic sign indicating forward destinations on a certain route. These destinations aid motorists using the highway system to reach destinations along the various routes...
on I-27; other cities and towns served by I-27 include (from south to north) New Deal, Abernathy, Hale Center, Plainview, Kress, Tulia, Happy, and Canyon. In Amarillo, I-27 is commonly known as the Canyon Expressway. The entire length of I-27 replaced U.S. Highway 87 for through traffic.
Route description
I-27 parallels the BNSF RailwayBNSF Railway
The BNSF Railway is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. It is one of seven North American Class I railroads and the second largest freight railroad network in North America, second only to the Union Pacific Railroad, its primary...
's Plainview Subdivision, which splits from its Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
Transcon line at Canyon and runs south to Lubbock. A large amount of the alignment is on former US 87, but several portions through built-up areas have been bypassed, as well as two longer areas where US 87 still follows the old road.
The Interstate begins at a point along the four-lane US 87 freeway south of downtown Lubbock. Mile 0 is posted near 77th Street, about five blocks south of Loop 289. Exit number
Exit number
An exit number is a number assigned to a road junction, usually an exit from a freeway. It is usually marked on the same sign as the destinations of the exit, as well as a sign in the gore....
ing begins just to the south, with exit 1 at the 82nd Street interchange; the freeway becomes six lanes at its north end. The Loop 289 interchange is a cloverleaf between the one-way frontage road
Frontage road
A frontage road is a non-limited access road running parallel to a higher-speed road, usually a freeway, and feeding it at appropriate points of access...
s of each highway, and with direct ramps from I-27 south to Loop 289 west (exit 1A) and Loop 289 east to I-27 north. U.S. Highway 84 (Avenue Q and Slaton Highway) crosses I-27 at a split diamond interchange, with an extra approach from the northeast carrying U.S. Highway 87 Business (Avenue A) into the junction. Exit 1B connects I-27 south to US 84 and the Loop 289 frontage roads, while all traffic from US 87 north to US 84, US 87 Business, or Loop 289 must use exit 1 for 82nd Street.
The six-lane cross section that began at exit 1 remains through Lubbock. Major junctions in that city include U.S. Highway 62/State Highway 114
State Highway 114 (Texas)
State Highway 114 or SH 114 is a state highway that runs from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex westward across the state to the state border with New Mexico, where it becomes New Mexico State Road 114, which eventually ends at Elida, New Mexico at US 70/NM 330.-History:The route was originally...
(19th Street, exit 3) and U.S. Highway 82 (4th Street, exit 4), which is also the north end of US 87 Business. Between these two interchanges, the frontage roads temporarily end as I-27 crosses over a rail line. Spur 326 (Avenue Q) merges with I-27 at exit 6A, and exit 6B is a split diamond with Loop 289. The outer lanes leave at Farm to Market Road 2641 (Regis Street, exit 8), reducing I-27 to two lanes in each direction as it passes Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport
Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport
Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport is an airport located just north of Lubbock, Texas. Originally known as Lubbock International Airport, it was renamed in 2004 to honor former Texas governor Preston E. Smith, an alumnus of Texas Tech University...
and leaves the city.
I-27 crosses over the Plainview Sub for the first time north of Farm to Market Road 1294 (Drew Street, exit 11), and another short gap exists in the frontage roads there. North of the overpass, the frontage roads are two-way; I-27 then passes through New Deal, bypassing the central part of the town to the west. Old US 87 between exits 13 and 15 is now Loop 461; at exit 15, I-27 begins to parallel the rail line, just to its west. Along this part of the highway, and other similar portions, slip ramps still connect the main lanes with the frontage roads, but intersecting roads pass over all four roadways and the railroad on a long bridge; a pair of two-way roadways connects the frontage roads to the crossroad, with the one on the east crossing the railroad at-grade.
As it approaches Abernathy, I-27 curves west away from the Plainview Sub. The old main road through the city, between exits 20 and 22, is now Loop 369; I-27 passes through 1.5 blocks to the east. Despite I-27's location north of Abernathy, 1/2 mile (1 km) west of the rail line, all interchanges between Abernathy and Hale Center, except the one at Farm to Market Road
Farm to Market Road
In the United States, a farm-to-market road or ranch-to-market road is a state road or county road which serves to connect rural or agricultural areas to market towns...
(exit 24), use the same configuration where the intersecting road crosses over all roadways. Approaching Hale Center, I-27 curves northeast as it splits from Farm to Market Road 1424 (exit 36) at a simple diamond interchange
Diamond interchange
A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a freeway crosses a minor road. The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge...
. The freeway passes through the city one block east of the old road, now I-27 Business, which is accessed at exits 36 and 38. As it leaves Hale Center, I-27 turns to the northeast, following the northwest side of the rail line.
The next two interchanges along the railroad between Hale Center and Plainview use the same style, in which the crossroad goes over everything. I-27 Business
Interstate 27 Business (Plainview, Texas)
Business Interstate 27-U is a business loop in the U.S. state of Texas. It stretches 9.282 miles along Columbia Street through Plainview, between exits 45 and 53 of Interstate 27 . The highway follows the original alignment of U.S. Highway 87 prior to the new freeway was built to the west...
splits at exit 45, a modified Y interchange, to pass through Plainview, and I-27 travels west of that city on a bypass. The two outer interchanges on this bypass, Farm to Market Road 3466 (exit 48) and Quincy Street (exit 51), are handled in the same way as the interchanges along the railroad, but the other two, U.S. Highway 70 (exit 49) and State Highway 194 (exit 50), are standard diamonds. Between exits 49 and 50 is another overpass over the frontage roads - 24th Street — with no separate slip ramps. I-27 Business ends at a trumpet interchange (exit 53) north of Plainview, where I-27 again begins to parallel the Plainview Sub to the west. Both interchanges between this one and the first split with US 87 (exit 61), a modified Y south of Kress, continue the pattern with the crossroad bridging over everything.
After it leaves US 87, I-27 is no longer next to the rail line, but it continues to handle interchanges as it does alongside the line, except at State Highway 86
State Highway 86 (Texas)
State Highway 86 or SH 86 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Texas that runs from Bovina to Estelline. This route was designated in 1926 as the renumbered SH 5A. It has travelled its present course since then, except for the addition of the northern portion of SH 18 between Turkey and...
(exit 74), a standard diamond that serves Tulia. US 87 rejoins the freeway at a modified diamond (exit 77) north of Tulia, at which I-27 crosses to the east side of the Plainview Sub before paralleling it to that side. After several of the typical interchanges adjacent to the railroad, US 87 splits again at a modified Y (exit 88) south of Happy. Except for the northernmost one, all of the interchanges on the bypass of Happy and Canyon are diamonds; there is a break in the frontage road north of Farm to Market Road 3331 (exit 108), where I-27 crosses the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River
Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River
Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River is a sandy-braided stream about long, formed at the confluence of Palo Duro Creek and Tierra Blanca Creek, about northeast of Canyon in Randall County, Texas, and flowing east-southeastward to the Red River about east of the 100th meridian, south-southwest of...
. Exits 109 (Buffalo Stadium Road) and 110 (US 87 south, US 60 west) are integrated, with some access to one road provided via the other.
I-27 is overlapped by US 60 and US 87 from exit 110 north of Canyon to the end of the Interstate in Amarillo; here the frontage roads are one-way. Several near the south end are handled by bridging the intersecting road over all roadways, but, once I-27 crosses Loop 335 (exit 116), almost all interchanges are diamonds. At exit 119A, which marks the south end of the six-lane cross section in Amarillo, Hillside Road passes under both the main lanes and the frontage roads, with two ramps providing partial access. Other connections with Hillside Road are made via Western Street (exit 119B), which crosses the frontage roads at grade. The end of I-27 at Interstate 40 (exit 123B) is a fully directional turbine interchange; U.S. Highway 287 also passes through, using I-40 to the east and US 60/US 87 to the north. Four lanes continue beyond I-40, and are joined by several from the I-40 ramps, making the northernmost portion of the Canyon Expressway five lanes in each direction. Several blocks beyond I-40, the highway ends at a split into two one-way pair
One-way pair
A one-way pair, one-way couple, or just couplet is a pair of parallel, usually one-way streets that carry opposite directions of a signed route or major traffic flow, or sometimes opposite directions of a bus or streetcar route....
s. Northbound traffic feeds onto Fillmore Street (US 87 north) and Buchanan Street (US 60 east and US 287 north), while southbound traffic approaches on Taylor Street (US 287 south) and Pierce Street (US 60 west and US 87 south). The rightmost of the five northbound lanes is barrier-separated from the rest, forcing traffic exiting I-40 west onto Buchanan Street. Through the I-40 interchange and the split, the frontage roads are discontinuous.
History
The roadway between Lubbock and Amarillo was part of the Puget Sound to Gulf Highway (State Highway 9), one of the original state highways defined in 1917. In 1926, it became part of U.S. Highway 385, which was absorbed into U.S. Highway 87 in 1935. The SH 9 overlap was dropped in the 1939 renumbering. PavingPavement (material)
Road surface or pavement is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past cobblestones and granite setts were extensively used, but these surfaces have mostly been replaced by asphalt or concrete. Such...
began in 1929 near Plainview, and was almost complete by 1940, with only about 8 miles (13 km) south of Canyon still bituminous surfaced until later that decade. The Canyon Expressway, a freeway upgrade of US 87 (also US 60 there) between Canyon and Amarillo, was built in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This highway, with a design speed
Design speed
The design speed is a tool used to determine geometric features of a new road during road design. The design speed chosen for a highway is a major factor in choosing superelevation rates and radii of curves, sight distance, and the lengths of crest and sag vertical curves...
of 45 miles per hour (70 km/h), included frontage road
Frontage road
A frontage road is a non-limited access road running parallel to a higher-speed road, usually a freeway, and feeding it at appropriate points of access...
s along its entire length, and ended in each city with a wye junction: the split of US 60 and US 87 in Canyon, and a split between the two one-way pair
One-way pair
A one-way pair, one-way couple, or just couplet is a pair of parallel, usually one-way streets that carry opposite directions of a signed route or major traffic flow, or sometimes opposite directions of a bus or streetcar route....
s of Taylor and Fillmore Streets and Pierce and Buchanan Streets in Amarillo. The Dumas Expressway, a freeway upgrade of US 87 north from Amarillo, opened several years later, feeding into the same one-way pairs.
Four-laning of US 87 from Canyon to Lubbock was completed in the late 1960s, with the last section to be widened lying between Abernathy and Lubbock. While this was built as a surface divided highway
Divided Highway
Divided Highway is a compilation album by American rock band The Doobie Brothers, released in 2003. . All tracks are taken from the albums Cycles and Brotherhood .-Track listing:...
south of Canyon, short sections of freeway were built through New Deal, Abernathy, and Hale Center, and interchange
Interchange (road)
In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
s were built at U.S. Highway 70 and State Highway 194 on the new bypass of Plainview and at State Highway 86
State Highway 86 (Texas)
State Highway 86 or SH 86 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Texas that runs from Bovina to Estelline. This route was designated in 1926 as the renumbered SH 5A. It has travelled its present course since then, except for the addition of the northern portion of SH 18 between Turkey and...
(towards the west) south of Tulia. The original two-lane road, where bypassed, became Loop 461 (New Deal, 1968, marked as US 87 Business), Loop 369 (Abernathy, 1962), a local street (Hale Center), and Loop 445 (Plainview, 1967, marked as US 87 Business).
Interstate 27 was not part of the original Interstate Highway System
Interstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, , is a network of limited-access roads including freeways, highways, and expressways forming part of the National Highway System of the United States of America...
chosen in the 1950s; the spur from I-40 to Lubbock was authorized with the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968, which added 1500 miles (2400 km) to the system. George H. Mahon
George H. Mahon
George Herman Mahon was a Texas politician who served twenty-two consecutive terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives from the Lubbock-based 19th congressional district....
, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1935 to 1979 and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee after 1964, helped secure funding for the road. Texas officially designated the highway in early 1969, originally running from U.S. Highway 62 near downtown Lubbock to I-40 in Amarillo; the definition was extended south through Lubbock to the south side of the loop in early 1976. The existing freeway sections, including the Canyon Expressway, were absorbed into I-27, despite not being built to Interstate standards. New construction began in 1975, from Lubbock north to New Deal, and most of the freeway was completed in the 1980s. Two long sections of US 87 were bypassed: Happy to Canyon on December 5, 1986, and Kress to Tulia soon after; I-27 was complete north of Lubbock by 1988. Most of the Happy-Canyon bypass was built along the two-lane Farm to Market Road 1541, which now ends at exit 103 southeast of Canyon.
The final section of I-27 to be built was through Lubbock, inside Loop 289; this was built in the early 1990s, and completed on September 3, 1992. On that day, a ceremony at the 34th Street overpass opened the road from 19th Street (US 62) to 54th Street, completing Texas's 3200-mile (5100 km) portion of the Interstate Highway System. At its south end, the new I-27 connected to an existing freeway upgrade of US 87, built about 1970 to a traffic circle
Traffic circle
A traffic circle or rotary is a type of circular intersection in which traffic must travel in one direction around a central island. In some countries, traffic entering the circle has the right-of-way and drivers in the circle must yield. In many other countries, traffic entering the circle must...
at US 84 (just north of Loop 289). The old route of US 87 through Lubbock became U.S. Highway 87 Business upon completion of I-27. Two business loops of I-27 have been designated: through Plainview (former Loop 445) in early 1991, and through Hale Center (formerly a local street) in 2002.
The completion of I-27, costing a total of $453.4 million, encouraged growth along the highway: towards the north side of Lubbock and the southwest in Amarillo; Canyon has become a suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Amarillo. Plainview, the largest city between Lubbock and Amarillo, has the only significant retail cluster outside the two terminal cities, and has attracted several industries. On the other hand, Tulia, once a self-contained community with local businesses, was bypassed by I-27, and residents must now drive elsewhere for most shopping needs.
Future
A study of a southern extension of I-27 to I-10 found that a full freeway extension would not be not economically feasible, instead recommending limited upgrades to the three corridors studied: SH 349 via Midland-Odessa to east of Fort Stockton, US 87 via Big Spring to Sonora or Junction, and US 84 via Sweetwater to Sonora or Junction. Of the three corridors, the Sweetwater route came the closest to warranting a freeway. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st CenturyTransportation Equity Act for the 21st Century
The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century was enacted June 9, 1998, as Public Law 105-178. TEA-21 authorized the Federal surface transportation programs for highways, highway safety, and transit for the 6-year period 1998-2003...
, passed in 1998, designated I-27 as part of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor, a High Priority Corridor from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
at Laredo to Denver. This corridor, planned for upgrading but not as a freeway, crosses I-20 at Big Spring and Midland (via a split), and I-10 at Sonora. It also forms part of the Great Plains International Trade Corridor, continuing north to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The part of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor within Texas is a proposed Trans-Texas Corridor
Trans-Texas Corridor
The Trans-Texas Corridor was a transportation network that was discontinued in the planning and early construction stages in the U.S. State of Texas. The network, as originally envisioned, would have been composed of a network of supercorridors up to wide to carry parallel links of tollways,...
.
Exit list
| County | Location | # Exit number An exit number is a number assigned to a road junction, usually an exit from a freeway. It is usually marked on the same sign as the destinations of the exit, as well as a sign in the gore.... |
Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lubbock | Lubbock Lubbock, Texas Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University... |
Southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| 1 | ||||
| 1A | 50th Street | Signed as exit 1C southbound | ||
| 2 | 34th Street, Avenue H | |||
| 3 | ||||
| 3A | 13th Street, Broadway | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
| 4 | – Mackenzie Park, Lubbock Memorial Civic Center Lubbock Memorial Civic Center The Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, a convention center located in Lubbock, Texas, was built in 1977 and dedicated to the memory of local residents who died in a 1970 tornado that struck the site of the center... , Crosbyton Crosbyton, Texas Crosbyton is a city in and the county seat of Crosby County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,874 at the 2000 census. Crosbyton is part of the Lubbock Metropolitan Statistical Area.... , Brownfield Brownfield, Texas Brownfield is a city in Terry County, Texas, United States. The population was 8,940 at the 2009 census. It is the county seat of Terry County near Lubbock in West Texas.-Geography:... |
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| 5 | Avenue H, Municipal Drive | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| 6A | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | |||
| 6B | Signed as exit 6 northbound | |||
| 7 | Yucca Lane | |||
| 8 | ||||
| 9 | Lubbock International Airport, General Aviation, FAA | |||
| 10 | Keuka Street | |||
| 11 | ||||
| 12 | County Road 58 | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
| New Deal New Deal, Texas New Deal is a town in Lubbock County, Texas, United States.The population was 708 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Lubbock Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:... |
13 | |||
| 14 | ||||
| 15 | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | |||
| 17 | County Road 53 | |||
| 20 | (Loop 369 Texas State Highway Loop 369 Loop 369, the Abernathy Loop, is a state highway in the U.S. state of Texas. It stretches 1.496 miles along Avenue D through Abernathy, between exits 20 and 22 of Interstate 27/U.S. Highway 87. It was authorized on October 15, 1962, after the new US 87 freeway was built... north) |
Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
| Hale Hale County, Texas Hale County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 36,602. It was organized in 1888, and is named for Lt. John C. Hale, a hero of the Battle of San Jacinto. The seat of the county is Plainview. It is home of the noted former Hale County Judge, Judge Bill... |
Abernathy Abernathy, Texas Abernathy is a city in Hale and Lubbock counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 2,839 at the 2000 census, but had dropped to 2,764 according to a 2009 estimate.... |
21 | ||
| 22 | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | |||
| 24 | ||||
| 27 | County Road | |||
| 31 | South end of FM 37 overlap | |||
| 32 | North end of FM 37 overlap | |||
| 36 | ||||
| Hale Center Hale Center, Texas Hale Center is a city in Hale County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,263 at the 2000 census. Hale Center is near the county seat of Plainview.Hale Center is located at .... |
37 | |||
| 38 | Main Street (I-27 Bus. south) | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| 41 | County Road | |||
| 43 | ||||
| 45 | ||||
| Plainview Plainview, Texas Plainview is a city in and the county seat of Hale County, Texas, United States. The population was 22,336 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Plainview is located at .... |
48 | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
| 49 | ||||
| 50 | ||||
| 51 | Quincy Street | |||
| 53 | ||||
| 54 | ||||
| 56 | ||||
| Swisher Swisher County, Texas Swisher County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 8,378. Its seat is Tulia. The county is named for James G. Swisher, a soldier of the Texas Revolution and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence... |
61 | North end of US 87 overlap | ||
| 63 | ||||
| 68 | ||||
| Tulia Tulia, Texas Tulia is a city in, and county seat of, Swisher County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,117 at the 2000 census; in the 2005 census estimate, it had fallen to 4,714. The city is at the junction of U.S. Route 87 and Texas State Highway 86, approximately two miles east Interstate 27... |
74 | |||
| 75 | Northwest 6th Street | |||
| 77 | South end of US 87 overlap | |||
| 82 | ||||
| 83 | ||||
| 88 | North end of US 87 overlap; signed as exits 88A (FM 1881) and 88B (US 87 north) northbound | |||
| Happy Happy, Texas Happy is a town in Randall and Swisher counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 647 at the 2000 census. The Randall County portion of Happy is part of the Amarillo, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area.... |
90 | |||
| Randall | ||||
| 92 | Haley Road | |||
| 94 | ||||
| 96 | Dowlen Road | |||
| 99 | Hungate Road | |||
| 103 | ||||
| Canyon Canyon, Texas Canyon is a city in Randall County, Texas, United States. The population was 12,875 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Randall County. It is the home of West Texas A&M University and Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. Palo Duro Canyon State Park is some twelve miles east of Canyon... |
106 | , Palo Duro Canyon State Park | ||
| 108 | ||||
| 109 | Buffalo Stadium Road | |||
| 110 | South end of US 60/US 87 overlap; no northbound exit | |||
| 111 | Rockwell Road | |||
| 112 | ||||
| 113 | McCormick Road | |||
| 115 | Sundown Lane | |||
| Amarillo Amarillo, Texas Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census... |
116 | |||
| 117 | Bell Street, Arden Road | |||
| 119 | Hillside Road, Western Street, 58th Avenue | Signed as exits 119A (Hillside Road west) and 119B (Western Street, 58th Avenue) southbound | ||
| 120A | Republic Avenue | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| 120B | 45th Avenue | Signed as exit 120 northbound | ||
| 121A | Georgia Street | Signed as exit 121 northbound | ||
| 121B | Hawthorne Drive, Austin Street | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| 122A | Parker Street, Moss Lane | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
| 122B | ||||
| 122C | 34th Street, Tyler Street | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| Potter | 123A | 26th Avenue | Signed as exit 123 southbound | |
| 123B | – Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, Albuquerque | North end of I-27; south end of US 287 overlap; no exit number southbound | ||
| Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||||
| Northbound exit and southbound entrance |
Related route
Business Interstate 27-T is a business loop in the U.S. stateU.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. It stretches 1.168 miles (1.880 km) along Main Street through Hale Center, between exits 36 and 38 of I-27. It was bypassed in about 1962, but was turned over to the city until April 5, 2002, when the new business route was authorized. Along the way, it intersects Farm to Market Road 1914 (Cleveland Street).
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