| US 82 | |||
| Get started | plains | ||
| End | Texarkana | ||
| Length | 557 mi | ||
| Length | 896 km | ||
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According to Beautyphoon, US 82 is a US Highway in Texas. The road forms a long east-west route through the north of the state, from the New Mexico border through Lubbock and Wichita Falls to Texarkana on the Arkansas border. The route is often of secondary character and is 896 kilometers long.
Travel directions
Texas Panhandle
US 82 in Lubbock County.
Just southwest of Plains, US 82 in New Mexico enters the state of Texas from Artesia, then crosses the flat High Plains at 1,150 feet (1,150 m) to Plains. In Plains, US 380 merges from Roswell in New Mexico. Both roads are then double-numbered over more than 50 kilometers. The road runs due east, over the prairies farmed with circular irrigation. At Brownfield, the road turns northeast and merges with US 62 coming from Hobbs. US 380 continues straight towards Denton. It also crosses the US 385, the main road from Odessa to Littlefield and Hereford in the north. The US 82 will then be double numbered with US 62 for 105 kilometers and has 2×2 lanes. The road has emergency lanes and a wide median strip, but is not a highway due to the lack of grade-separated intersections. After about 50 kilometers you reach the city of Lubbock.
Lubbock is a larger city with 212,000 inhabitants. Around the city is a ring road in the form of a highway, the Loop 289. The road runs through the center of town, and intersects Interstate 27, the highway from Lubbock to Amarillo in the north. On the east side of the city you cross the ring again, after which you leave Lubbock again. The road also has 2×2 lanes after Lubbock, and again passes through farmland with prairies and circular irrigation. At Ralls, the US turns 62to the north, to walk a parallel route about 35 kilometers north. US 82 continues to run north and has 2×2 lanes for about 100 kilometers. You pass through some river valleys, around which the landscape is slightly more undulating, but the rest is just flat. Just before Guthrie, the road narrows to one lane in each direction. Guthrie crosses US 83, the main road from the town of Abilene in the south to Childress and Shamrock in the north, two regional towns of minor importance.
Northern Texas
US 82 near Dickens.
After Guthrie, the road has a secondary character, but is a fairly through road connecting the cities of Lubbock and Wichita Falls. The distance between them is about 330 kilometers, and there are only a few villages along the way, so the road is quiet. Slowly the prairies are turning into more organized agriculture. One passes through a few villages, and now and then crosses another road. In Seymour a more important crossing follows. Here, US 82 merges with US 277, which comes from Abilene, and crosses US 183, which is double-numbered with US 283, which comes from Vernon and heads toward Breckenridge and Coleman, two smaller towns in central Texas. The US 82 and US 277 then begin a double numbering of about 80 kilometers until Wichita Falls.
One then reaches Wichita Falls from the southwest. The city has a population of 102,000 and is located at the southern end of Interstate 44. For the size of the city, Wichita Falls is well connected. I-44 runs through the city, and the intersecting roads also have freeway sections. US 82 is also a freeway here, with 2×3 lanes. It then connects to I-44, the highway to Oklahoma City, and the road is then double-numbered with US 287, the 2×2 highway from Dallas to Amarillo. The US 281. is also crossed here, the road from Mineral Wells. I-44, US 277, and US 281 then head north together. The US 82/US 287 is then a highway until just outside Wichita Falls, after which the road becomes a regular 2×2 main road. After about 25 miles, at Henrietta, US 82 exits east, continuing on US 287 toward Fort Worth and Dallas.
US 82 after that is a one-lane main road in each direction that crosses the northern prairies. After about 20 kilometers comes the intersection with US 81 in Ringgold. US 81 comes from Bowie and Fort Worth and heads for Duncan in Oklahoma. The US 82 then follows a route that runs parallel to the border with Oklahoma, usually about 20 to 25 kilometers away. From Nocona, the road returns to 2×2 lanes and then continues east through the rolling terrain, reaching a major junction at Gainesville with Interstate 35, the highway from Dallas to Oklahoma City. The US 77 isdouble numbered with I-35. Just past Gainesville, Whitesboro crosses US 377, a secondary north-south route from Denton to Madill, Oklahoma. Not far afterwards you reach the town of Sherman, which has 38,000 inhabitants. It crosses the major US 75 highway, which runs from Dallas toward Tulsa. Just east of Sherman, at Bells, it crosses US 69, which comes from Greenville.
US 82 is then again a secondary highway with one lane in each direction. You then pass through the vast agricultural areas, with occasional small forests. The area is still flat to sloping. It then takes about 80 kilometers to the next intersection, near Paris. Here you cross US 271, the road from Tyler and Longview to Hugo in Oklahoma. There is also a ring road for through traffic around Paris. After Paris, another 90 kilometers of secondary main road with one lane in each direction follow. More and more forest is growing in this area, but it is not yet dominant. At De Kalb you cross US 259 , the main road from Longview to Idabel in Oklahoma. Not far after that one crosses Interstate 30at New Boston. The I-30 connects Dallas to Little Rock. One then reaches the twin city of Texarkana, which is located in both Texas and Arkansas, hence the name. Here one crosses US 59, which comes from Marshall and Houston. Then follows the border with Arkansas and US 82 continues in Arkansas towards El Dorado.
History
US 82 was added to the network in 1932, but it ran no further west than Texarkana at the time. The route was extended west to Lubbock in 1934 and further into New Mexico in 1961, creating the current route through Texas.
In the early 1970s, US 82 was diverted north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area on a new 2×2 lane route that runs north of Whitesboro, Sherman and Bonham. This road was presumably completed in 1974, when the old route through downtown Sherman was renumbered SH 56.
In 2017, US 82 was widened to 2+1 lanes with alternate passing lanes on a 15-kilometer stretch between DeKalb and New Boston. 2+1 roads are rare in Texas. In 2019, planning was completed for a 43-kilometer doubling of US 82 in North Texas, between Henrietta and Nocona.
Marsha Sharp Freeway
The Marsha Sharp Freeway in Lubbock.
The part in Lubbock is a freeway, the Marsha Sharp Freeway. Money was already set aside for this in 1998, but the project only started construction in 2005, after which it was opened in phases. The last section of this opened to traffic on July 24, 2012 as far as I-27. Between June 2013 and the end of 2015, the highway was built in the southwest of Lubbock. The main carriageways opened to traffic on 3 August 2015. Between October 2015 and February 2017, an intersection with Loop 193 on the west side of Wolfforth was converted into a junction. Subsequently, between March 2017 and March 2018, the Marsha Sharp Freeway through Lubbock was widened to 2×3 lanes. This was carried out by reconstructing the left hard shoulder into a third lane, all bridges on and over the highway were already prepared for this. The project cost only $17 million. The project was formally delivered on March 5, 2018.
Opening history
| From | Unpleasant | Length | Date |
| Dowden Avenue | Donald Preston Drive (Wolfforth) | 3.5 km | 00-00-199x |
| Milwaukee Avenue | Chicago Avenue | 3.1 km | 00-02-2008 |
| Salem Avenue | Avenue L | 6.4 km | 00-07-2009 |
| Chicago Avenue | Salem Avenue | 2.3 km | 00-00-2010 |
| Avenue L | I-27 | 1.5 km | 24-07-2012 |
| Spur 327 | Milwaukee Avenue | 2.4 km | 03-08-2015 |
| Walk 193 | Dowden Avenue | 2.2 km | 13-02-2017 |
| Donald Preston Drive (Wolfforth) | Spur 327 | 2.8 km | 00-02-2018 |
Wichita Falls
US 82 is also a freeway in Wichita Falls. The part numbered double with US 287 is the oldest. Beginning in the early 1990s, US 82 west of downtown was made grade separated into a freeway. Since 2009, the highway has its current starting point in western Wichita Falls.
Traffic intensities
1,200 vehicles drive daily at the New Mexico border and 2,000 to 2,300 vehicles between Plains and Brownfield. The section that is double-numbered with US 62 towards Lubbock has 8,000 vehicles, increasing to 19,000 vehicles on the outskirts of Lubbock and 37,000 vehicles in the west of the city. 5,000 vehicles drive to Ralls, further east this drops to 1,100 to 1,600 vehicles further to Seymour. From Seymour to Wichita Falls, 3,000 to 5,000 vehicles drove, rising to a maximum of 59,000 vehicles on the freeway in Wichita Falls. East of the city it drops again to 20,000 vehicles and 2,600 vehicles east of Henrietta to Gainesville. 23,000 vehicles passed through Gainesville, then 16,000 vehicles to Sherman, and 23,000 vehicles into Sherman itself. Further east, 5,000 vehicles drove to Paris and 3.