Route Description
Sections between downtown Fort Worth and Grapevine, Texas are freeway, including a small segment near Hurst, Texas that coincides with Interstate 820. At Bedford, Texas it has an interchange with State Highway 183, the Irving freeway that leads toward Dallas; it has an interchange with State Highway 360, which leads toward Arlington, Texas, just to the west of the north entrance to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, to which State Highway 121 gives access. At Grapevine it has interchanges with State Highway 114 and Interstate 635 before becoming a limited-access tollway that passes between Lewisville and Frisco.
It is very heavily traveled south and west of McKinney and has become an urban highway due to the rapid growth of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Service roads extending southwest to northeast along the corridor from Lewisville to McKinney are free of charge, however the main lanes within the right-of-way are tolled as part of the Sam Rayburn Tollway operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA.) The highway's northeastern half is primarily two lanes wide and carries significantly less traffic.
It meets Interstate 35E at Lewisville, Texas, State Highway 289 near Frisco, Texas, U.S. Highway 75 and U.S. Highway 380 in McKinney, Texas, U.S. Highway 69 at Trenton, Texas, and State Highway 78 just north of Bonham.
Construction began in 2009 on the extension of 121 south from Fort Worth to Cleburne, Texas, as a toll road called Southwest Parkway in Tarrant County and Chisolm Trail in Johnson County. This section will be operated by the NTTA and the entire project, from IH 30 to U.S. 67 is expected to open to traffic in the fourth quarter of 2012.
In March, 2009, work was completed on a short stretch of TX 121 northeast of DFW Airport which upgraded 2 signalized at-grade intersections to a freeway, with overpasses at both intersections, clearing up a problem for rush-hour traffic.
Read more about this topic: Texas State Highway 121
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