MIDLAND, Texas — A major intersection of Highway 191 is getting a big makeover.
The Texas Department of Transportation broke ground Wednesday on a more than $10 million project to expand the intersection of 191 and FM 1788.
The intersection will be home to several medical center developments, including the Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center.
TxDOT went back to the drawing board with a new plan to make roads easier for drivers.
"We're able to add this dedicated right turn lane for the northbound traffic on 1788 and we'll have a dedicated right turn lane for the southbound traffic coming in from 349. So that will add some capacity to the intersection," said Eric Lykins, engineer for the TxDOT Odessa District. "And then we're also going to be able to make where we have what we call the u-turn dedicated u-turns on the frontage roads for 191. We're going to be able to take part of the concrete medians back and those will now end up being a through lane or the u-turn lane, so we'll actually add an additional lane east and west of the intersection. So in the big scheme of things, it's not huge improvements in widenings for this intersection, but we believe operationally it is going to improve the level of service quite a bit getting through this intersection."
TxDOT expects the expansion to be completed by the summer of 2025.