Jump to content

The Deathtrap That Is 290 West


Wally Pryor

Recommended Posts

I’ve been in Amarillo for 3 days. Incredibly, laughably light traffic after living/ working in H-town metro for 16 years.

Was always a treacherous run on 290.  Like a got dam gauntlet.  Avoided it with a passion.

Edited by slorch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The other day I was driving on 290 between Austin and Dripping Springs and I was thinking yeah, all this work they’ve done to add a middle turning lane is kind of useless. You still have traffic doing 60-65, and you still have cars having to turn left, and when they screw it up, it’s catastrophic. Now 290 and 1826 has a stop light. What excuse is there to crash at that intersection? Somebody had to run a red light there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Oakhill Parkway project ( now funded) which has mostly been talked about as a rebuild of the Y will also reconstruct this section of 290 from Oak Hill to S View Road..

It will:

-Put a physical barrier between opposing lanes

-Remove lights and add Overpasses and U/Turn lanes

 

(Click to Enlarge)

290 West

us290-West.jpg

290 West at Convict Hill

us290-West-Convict-Hill.jpg
 

290 West at S View Rd

us290-West-SView-Rd.jpg
 

290 West at 1826

us290-West-1826.jpg
 

290 West at Scenic Brook

us290-West-Scenic-Brook.jpg

 

Edited by Pasken
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, next2naus said:

so that will take what? 10 years?

Dude, just be happy there is funding for it. There are a lot of people who wish the problem with 35 was that they were looking at construction timelines instead of lack of funding.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, XYZ said:

The other day I was driving on 290 between Austin and Dripping Springs and I was thinking yeah, all this work they’ve done to add a middle turning lane is kind of useless. You still have traffic doing 60-65, and you still have cars having to turn left, and when they screw it up, it’s catastrophic. Now 290 and 1826 has a stop light. What excuse is there to crash at that intersection? Somebody had to run a red light there.

I live our there and that is what causes most accidents.  Red light running and turning left when not safe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, slorch said:

I’ve been in Amarillo for 3 days. Incredibly, laughably light traffic after living/ working in H-town metro for 16 years.

Was always a treacherous run on 290.  Like a got dam gauntlet.  Avoided it with a passion.

They are talking about 290 west, dipshit. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Girdwood said:

They are talking about 290 west, dipshit. 

Of course.

 

and 290 out of Houston runs to the east..., correct?

 

Note to densely fucking lamebrained dork:  290 is fucked up in both localities.

 

strange,but true...

Edited by slorch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I drive this stretch almost every damn day, but when given the option, I'll go home through Buda instead.  I encourage my wife to stay in Dripping as much as possible and I'm dreading the day my kids are old enough to drive primarily because of 290.  Lost a friend on that stretch in 2017 and our community had a 7 year old boy end up in a wheelchair thanks to an accident on 290 just a few months ago. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, thestud said:

Calm down Gus, DaysOff will have you believe it was a design flaw in the construction of the road that caused this and many other accidents.

that road clearly isn’t made to handle the traffic it now gets.  I don’t have stats but I’d assume 290 between oak hill and dripping kills people at above average rates. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, thestud said:

 

 


And there are ways for non aggy drivers to not do stupid and unsafe shit. The road is a road, it doesn’t make bad things happen. People doing stupid shit do that just fine.

 

 

There are intersections in Houston which are 2-way stops, but the overgrowth of trees/bushes/buildings make it likely one will have a near miss than at a typical 4 way stop.  Alligator Alley in Florida was notorious for lethal wrecks because of a 2 lane highway at 55 mph in the dark (sometimes gators would layout on the highway).  The state widened it, divided it, and it became safer (unfortunately cell phones and increased speed limits have made it more dangerous again).   Design matters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Paper_jam said:

A poorly designed or constructed road is more likely to result in people doing stupid shit.

The TxDoT engineer in Wise County for years was an aggy. He designed some real headscratchers and people died because of it. The interchange of 380 & 287 is a prime example.

380.png

Heading north on 287 and exiting to 380. Speed limit 55, steep downhill and a 20 mph horseshoe. They could have put in a traditional interchange, but that would have required taking part of the OLD TxDot yard that they use for absolutely nothing. Can't count how many trucks have flipped trying to make that turn.

Heading south on 287 and exiting to 380 you have a weird S turn then have to cross 2 lanes of 55 mph traffic. Same thing for exiting 380 E to 287 S or N. There were so many fatalities they finally had to admit it was a bad design and add an onramp from 380E to 287S. He originally said that ramp was impossible.

Edited by RPM
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Spaulding Smails said:

I drive this stretch almost every damn day, but when given the option, I'll go home through Buda instead.  I encourage my wife to stay in Dripping as much as possible and I'm dreading the day my kids are old enough to drive primarily because of 290.  Lost a friend on that stretch in 2017 and our community had a 7 year old boy end up in a wheelchair thanks to an accident on 290 just a few months ago. 

We sold our place in Drippin’ 17 years ago now due to being tired of what seemed like going to 2-3 funerals a year from wrecks on 290 and on 12. Can’t imagine what it must be like with several fold more people out there. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, slorch said:

Of course.

 

and 290 out of Houston runs to the east..., correct?

 

Note to densely fucking lamebrained dork:  290 is fucked up in both localities.

 

strange,but true...

The issues with 290 in the Houston area aren’t relevant to this discussion, dipshit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to drive that stretch all the time. Never saw a wreck and this is the first I'm hearing of it being a big problem. I moved to Kyle and guess I've lost touch.

It was always a dangerous road being undivided. But I never felt nervous driving it. Just stayed in the right lane.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, Longhorn Al said:

I used to drive that stretch all the time. Never saw a wreck and this is the first I'm hearing of it being a big problem. I moved to Kyle and guess I've lost touch.

It was always a dangerous road being undivided. But I never felt nervous driving it. Just stayed in the right lane.

Did you get dealt that hand in your avatar?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Austinvines said:

Idiot took an illegal left, hit the Mustang and pushed it into oncoming traffic where it was creamed by a truck.

Yup. Jesus.

A man in his 20s was killed Thursday morning in a three-vehicle collision on U.S. 290 near Oak Hill after a driver in an SUV disregarded a traffic sign and collided with the man’s car, Austin Police Department officials said.

The crash happened shortly before 7 a.m. Thursday near the intersection of U.S. 290 West and RM 1826. Authorities said said an SUV was pulling out of a private drive onto U.S. 290 and turned left in front of several lanes of traffic on the busy highway, despite a sign that said only right turns were allowed.

The SUV collided with a silver car that swerved to avoid a wreck, senior police officer Destiny Silva said. Due to the force of the collision, the silver car continued to slide across the eastbound lanes of traffic and was hit a second time by a truck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Drive from Henly into ATX at least 4x a week...... As others have noted, stupid fucks on their cell phones are probably the greatest component of these accidents as I see them driving and on their phone texting daily. I also work in EMS and have to transport or cover them up after the accidents. They keep talking about improving the Y at Oak Hill but yet to implement. From Dripping into town, the whole thing needs to be widened and separated much like 71 is to Bastrop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

https://www.statesman.com/news/20190418/man-killed-after-struck-by-driver-who-ignored-traffic-sign-on-us-290-police-say

Police said the driver of the SUV stayed at the scene and was cited for disregarding a posted sign, a Class C misdemeanor. They said intoxication did not play a role in the crash.

 

So the POS driving the SUV ignores the no left turn sign, turns left with traffic coming, knocks another car into a truck, killing that driver and sending the truck driver to the hospital.  Why wasn't this selfish moron arrested and charged with manslaughter?

Edited by clapclapclap
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, clapclapclap said:

https://www.statesman.com/news/20190418/man-killed-after-struck-by-driver-who-ignored-traffic-sign-on-us-290-police-say

Police said the driver of the SUV stayed at the scene and was cited for disregarding a posted sign, a Class C misdemeanor. They said intoxication did not play a role in the crash.

 

So the POS driving the SUV ignores the no left turn sign, turns left with traffic coming, knocks another car into a truck, killing that driver and sending the truck driver to the hospital.  Why wasn't this selfish moron arrested and charged with manslaughter?

I think he's in deep shit... give it a few days... they'll Gabby Nestande his ass, only 10X worse.  He'll probably get criminal negligent manslaughter.  I'm only a Holiday Inn lawyer, but this seems to be in the textbook for that charge.  Ignoring the sign is the Class C misdemeanor.  Reckless disregard is a whole 'nother ball game.

I hope and believe he's shitting his pants right now.  

Edited by phdhorn
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, so google streetview shows two new apartment complexes there, one west of Exxon and one east.  I didn't know those had been built. 

What a terrible design.  Only 1 lane exiting the apartment complex.  I don't see any easy places to do a u-turn on 290 when you do obey and exit right.  This entire situation is stupid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, so google streetview shows two new apartment complexes there, one west of Exxon and one east.  I didn't know those had been built. 
What a terrible design.  Only 1 lane exiting the apartment complex.  I don't see any easy places to do a u-turn on 290 when you do obey and exit right.  This entire situation is stupid.


Check this out. When planning out the construction the developers of Ocotillo apartments approached that Exxon with some sort of deal that would have allowed the apartments to share the existing Exxon driveway as a result of the entry/exit already being controlled by a traffic light. The store owners declined. Sounded like a cluster fuck of an idea in general.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because I had nothing better to do, I just went to the scene of the crash to figure it out. On the north side of the intersection of 290 and 1826 there's an apartment complex named Ocotillo. It has two access roads. One is about 100 years west of the 290/1826 and it's a private driveway. There's a sign that says "no left turn". There are no traffic lights there. The second access road is Hudson Loop, which is another 100 yards west of the private driveway, and there is a traffic light there. So pickup truck uses the private driveway, tries to turn left, hits a mustang that's going west, pushes it to the eastbound lanes, where a truck hits the mustang. There was no excuse for the pickup truck not to use Hudson Loop to turn left onto 290. They better charge the driver with manslaughter.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I passed a bad wreck last week, a Tacoma looked to have T-boned an F-150 and the 150 was on it's passenger side.  This was in an intersection on Hwy 6 in Sugarland.  Appeared as if the 150 was making a left thru the intersection in a dedicated turn lane.  As I passed by, they were just pulling the roof off, where you could see a man, motionless.  Couldn't tell (I try not to rubberneck) if he was driver or backseat passenger.  But you could tell he was fucked up or dead.    

Fast forward to the very next red light.  I stop.  3 cars in right two lanes go thru red at ~3 seconds late.  WTF people.  This world is chock full of fucking idiots.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...