The Hardy Toll Road runs from Interstate 610, near central Houston, to Interstate 45, north of Houston just below the Harris County line. The road generally parallels Interstate 45. The portion from I-610 to Crosstimbers Road is known as Spur 548, although this is unsigned.
Construction on the toll road started in September 1984 and the entire road was complete by June 1988. The toll road runs 21.6 miles (34.8 km) and costs $3.50 to drive its full length ($1.75 north of Beltway 8 and $1.75 south of Beltway 8). A four-mile (6 km) connecting road to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport requires $1.00 toll. At Hardy North and South toll booths, a 20 cent discount applies to electronic EZ TAG users.
The road is named for nearby Hardy Street, which makes up the frontage roads for the toll road in two locations: (1) between Spring Railroad Yard and FM 1960 and (2) Greens Road to Crosstimbers Road. Houstonians sometimes affectionately refer to the Hardy Toll Road as the Laurel and Hardy Toll Road.
A large portion of the southern segment resembles Austin's Mopac Expressway in that an active line of the Union Pacific railroad runs along its median. Like other toll roads in the Houston area, the speed limit is 65 mph (105 km/h), even inside Beltway 8.
Read more about Hardy Toll Road: Lane Count, Exit List
Famous quotes containing the words hardy, toll and/or road:
“It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out of love as there is for getting in. Some people look upon marriage as a short cut that way, but it has been known to fail.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“one is in a shoe factory cursing the machine,
one is at the aquarium tending a seal,
one is dull at the wheel of her Ford,
one is at the toll gate collecting,
one is tying the cord of a calf in Arizona,
one is straddling a cello in Russia....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“My father and mother in 1817 were forty-nine days on the road with their emigrant wagons [from Vermont] to Ohio. More than two days for each hour that I spent in the same journey.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)