The Addison Airport Toll Tunnel (abbreviated AATT) is a road

tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

Addison, Texas Addison is an incorporated town in Dallas County, Texas, United States. The 2020 census population was 16,661. Addison is immediately north of Dallas. Addison and Flower Mound were the only two Texas municipalities labeled "towns" with a popul ...

, that carries Keller Springs Road underneath

Addison Airport Addison Airport is a public airport in Addison, Texas, Addison, in Dallas County, Texas, Dallas County, Texas, United States, north of downtown Dallas., effective 2007-12-20 It opened in 1954 and was purchased by the town of Addison in 197 ...

. The tunnel is operated by the

North Texas Tollway Authority The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is a not-for-profit government organization that maintains and operates toll roads, bridges, and tunnels in the North Texas area. Functioning as a political subdivision of the State of Texas under Chap ...

(NTTA) and uses

open road tolling Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of tollbooths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major ...

through NTTA's

TollTag The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is a not-for-profit government organization that maintains and operates toll roads, bridges, and tunnels in the North Texas area. Functioning as a political subdivision of the State of Texas under Chap ...

system.

The tunnel connects the western and eastern barrier roads of Addison Airport (Midway Road and Addison Road, respectively). This provides a through passage between

Dallas North Tollway The Dallas North Tollway (DNT, or simply the Tollway) is a controlled-access highway, controlled-access toll road operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), which runs from Interstate 35E (Texas), Interstate 35E near Downtown Dall ...

and Interstate 35E, reducing traffic on Belt Line Road and Trinity Mills Road. The tunnel proper is long, while the entire roadway is long. Tolls are collected at a plaza on the west side of the roadway. , two-axle vehicles are charged $0.74 if paying via

electronic toll collection Electronic toll collection (ETC) is a wireless system to automatically collect the usage fee or Road pricing, toll charged to vehicles using toll roads, HOV lanes, toll bridges, and toll tunnels. It is a faster alternative which is replacing Tol ...

or $1.48 if paying by mail invoice; this price increases for each additional axle.

History

Construction of an airport in the newly incorporated town of Addison was proposed in 1956. However, the planned long primary north-south runway would sever Keller Springs Road, a controversial proposal requiring negotiations with the Dallas County Commissioner's Court and city officials. After obtaining final approval,

had its formal groundbreaking ceremony on March 16, 1957, the section of road crossing the runway was demolished, and the airport opened later that year. Until 1969, motorists could drive directly east-west around the north side of the airport on Westgrove Road, which connected Dooley Road to Addison Road. However, the runway was then extended northwards to total length, and Westgrove Road was realigned to curve north and terminate at Trinity Mills Road rather than intersecting with Dooley Road; this made Trinity Mills the closest continuous east-west thoroughfare north of Belt Line, with a roughly gap. Traffic on Belt Line Road later started to surpass its design capacity by 10,000 vehicles per day, and in 1984, Addison

city manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city in the council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are referred to as the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief administ ...

Ron Whitehead began calling for the two sections of Keller Springs Road to be reconnected to relieve the traffic congestion. In 1991, the Texas Turnpike Authority (NTTA's predecessor) conducted a preliminary study for a tunnel connecting the segments. The study proposed a 75¢ toll and predicted that such a toll would raise $4.7 million per year, and Dallas County voters approved $3 million in bonds to fund the project. Dallas County contributed $3 million to purchase the right-of-way, but the project did not proceed further due to high cost. In 1995, the project was revisited and approved. The tunnel was budgeted at $26.8 million, and the planned toll rate was reduced to 50¢. Tunneling work began in September 1997. The tunnel was mined through the Austin Chalk underlying the airport by a roadheader, a large rock cutting machine that was nicknamed "Big Mike," at a rate of per day. The tunnel was completed and opened to the public on February 18, 1999. Within a year, daily traffic through the tunnel exceeded 10,000 vehicles. In 2007, NTTA announced the removal of its toll booths (both manned and coin-operated) at all of its facilities by 2010 in favor of a pay-by-mail system. AATT's toll booths were removed in 2009.

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Addison Airport Toll Tunnel

North Texas Tollway Authority

Addison Airport Toll Tunnel - Schnabel Engineering
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Dallas County, Texas Tunnels in Dallas Non-freeway toll roads Toll tunnels in the United States Transportation in Dallas County, Texas Tunnels completed in 1999 Road tunnels in the United States Addison, Texas 1999 establishments in Texas