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State Highway (left) and Farm To Market Road (right) shields
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State Highway X (SH X)
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Interstate Highway X (IH X)
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US Highway X (US X)
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The
Texas Department Of Transportation (TXDOT) owns and maintains a large network of
State Highway s in the
U.S. State of
Texas . In addition to the nationally-numbered
Interstate Highway s and
U.S. Highway s, the highways are split into two major systems and several minor systems.
All state highways, regardless of classification, are paved roads.
__TOC__
A ('''SH''') is funded and maintained by the state. (renumbered from
Farm To Market Road 495 ), as well as cancelled routes
SH 550 (a temporary designation for what is now part of
Interstate Highway 30 ) and
SH 824 (a temporary designation for what was later part of
SH 24 ).
NASA Road 1 and
State Highway OSR are also in the State Highway network. The first State Highways were designated in 1917. All suffixed routes were eliminated by 1939, though a
State Highway 75-A existed from 1946 to 1994 to match
Oklahoma's State Highway 75A .
Loop, Spur and Beltway shields
are short links in the State Highway network. Typically, a Loop connects two State Highways, and a Spur connects a State Highway to a Farm to Market or local road. Many loops are either new bypasses or older bypassed roads. One loop - around
Houston - is labeled
State Highway Beltway 8 . The first Loops and Spurs were defined in 1939; prior to that, the roadways had been segments of the State Highways they branched off of.
Farm to Market and Ranch to Market Road shields
generally exist in - is simply a Ranch Road, serving the
LBJ Ranch . Farm to Market Roads were first designated in 1941 and Ranch to Market Roads in 1942. A number of Farm to Market Roads in
Urban areas were redesignated in 1995 as '''Urban Roads''', but the shields were not changed.
Business Route s are assigned to many old alignments of Interstate Highways, U.S. Highways, State Highways and Farm to Market Roads that have been bypassed. In addition to the numerical designation, a unique lettered suffix is assigned to each business route along the highway - for instance,
Business Interstate Highway 40-D and
Business Farm To Market Road 1960-A . (Not all routes start from A, and letters are sometimes skipped.) These letters are included on the sign in small print below the number. The sign specifications for Business Interstate Highways do not include the letter, but it has been added to many signs. Prior to 1991, business routes were assigned Loop or Spur numbers, but signed as business routes (with a
BUSINESS plate above the shield for the main route). In 1991, all the business routes were assigned official designations, and their former Loop and Spur numbers were eliminated.
Park Road and Recreational Road shields
and '''Recreational Roads''' serve
State or
National Park s and "recognized recreational areas"; the first ones were defined in 1939 and 1970 respectively. All roads in state parks are maintained by TXDOT, but are generally not numbered.
Toll Interstate Highway, U.S. Highway and State Highway shields
One characteristic of the highways in Texas are its
Frontage Road s; most
Freeway s have continuous frontage roads,
One-way in
Urban areas and two-way in
Rural areas. Several
Toll Road s have one-way frontage roads - not necessarily continuous - with State Highway numbers. Most toll roads are marked with special logos, but TXDOT has adopted a new shield as of 2006 for numbered toll roads.
Shield used until the mid-1940s
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