A stretch of highway in Denton County, Texas that was designed for cattle country is finally getting rebuilt for the suburb it has become. The Texas Department of Transportation is moving forward with a $46.4 million project to widen US 377 from two lanes to four between FM 1171 and Crawford Road, a corridor that cuts through the Argyle area on the northern fringe of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
The funding comes through the federal Surface Transportation Block Grant program, with TxDOT administering the work. Because federal highway grants typically require a 20% local match, the full project cost is likely closer to $58 million.
Denton County has grown from roughly 432,000 residents in 2000 to more than 1 million by 2024, making it one of the fastest-growing large counties in the country for most of the past two decades. Master-planned communities have replaced the ranches that once lined US 377, and the road now carries school buses, commuters, and commercial trucks at volumes it was never designed to handle. Multiple fatal crashes on this segment have been linked to its two-lane configuration struggling with suburban traffic loads.
The rebuilt road will include new traffic signals with updated timing, dedicated turn lanes, Texas U-turns (the characteristic median-opening design that routes left turns without cutting across oncoming traffic), sidewalks, and at least one grade separation, an overpass or underpass to eliminate a particularly dangerous at-grade crossing. The addition of pedestrian infrastructure is a notable shift for a highway corridor that, not long ago, had no need for it.
Residents and local media have followed this project for years with a mix of anticipation and frustration, watching traffic worsen while planning and funding worked through the system. TxDOT held public meetings on the design as part of its environmental review process, and the project has been part of both the TxDOT Unified Transportation Program and the North Central Texas Council of Governments' regional transportation plan.
A construction timeline has not been publicly announced. With federal funding now secured, the next steps are finalizing design and moving toward a construction contract.
