City and Dallas County officials celebrated the completion of the Shiloh Road Improvement Project Friday, Aug. 5. But for many motorists and Garland residents, the celebration is daily.
The project went far beyond widening Shiloh Road from four to six lanes. There are upgraded utility lines, underground work for drainage, water and wastewater lines, and rail crossings. Lighting and streetscaping is new and inviting. A monopole traffic signal spans the width of the Shiloh-Garland Avenue-McCree Road intersection with mounted lights and turn signals for each street on a single structure -- something of a marvel say the engineers, street and transportation professionals who were among many City departments involved in the project.
About 44,000 vehicles use the Garland-Shiloh-McCree intersection per day. More than 17,000 vehicles use Shiloh Road per day between Kingsley and Garland Avenue and the workload on Shiloh increases to 18,600 vehicles per day between Garland Avenue and Interstate 635.
Shiloh Road is a major gateway into Garland from I-635, which itself is in the midst of a four-year, $1.7 billion state investment to provide more lanes of travel and continuous access roads in Garland's busiest traffic corridor.
"It's a huge deal because we're getting ahead of what will happen once the 635 project is complete," Mayor Scott LeMay said.
Dallas County Commissioner Dr. Theresa Daniel said discussion of the Shiloh Road Improvement Project dates to 2006. Ground was broken in 2019. Total cost of the project was $24 million, split between the City and Dallas County. Mayor LeMay said there were constant and necessary conversations with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Kansas City Southern Railroad, Garland Power & Light, Oncor, Brazos Electric, Frontier and Spectrum. TxDOT actually will provide the final 900 feet of South Shiloh Road within Garland city limits as part of the 635 East project.
Future City projects will widen Shiloh from Kingsley north to the VA Hospital. The next segment, Kingsley to Miller Road, was approved by voters in the 2019 Bond Program and is currently in the design phase.