Farm to Market Road 521

Farm to Market Road 521
Route information
Length: 94.612 mi[1] (152.263 km)
Existed: 1945 [1] – present
Major junctions
North end:
US 90 Alt. in Houston
  I-610 in Houston
Beltway 8 / Sam Houston Tollway in Houston
SH 6 in Arcola
SH 35 in Bailey's Prairie
SH 332 (runs concurrently into Brazoria.
SH 36 in Brazoria (End of Highway 332)
SH 60 in Wadsworth
South end: SH 35 outside Palacios
Highway system

Highways in Texas
Interstate • U.S. • TX (LoopsSpursRecFM)

← FM 520 FM 522

Farm to Market Road 521 is a state highway the U.S. state of Texas.

The road is one of the longest farm-to-market roads in the state at almost 95 miles (153 km). It starts at U.S. Highway 90A near downtown Houston and passes south and southwest through Harris, Brazoria, and Matagorda counties.

Inside Houston, the road has been designated as Urban Road 521, but the designation is only used in official state files. In Houston, it's known as Almeda Road. South of South MacGregor Way, Almeda Road has a wide median, and this was the originally proposed alignment for the South Freeway.[2][3]

In the future, the wide median of Almeda Road is the proposed location for the exit lanes of the South Freeway future toll lanes. The exit lanes will travel north on Almeda road and cross over Holly Hall Street before merging with traffic on Almeda Road.[4]

Contents

Directional Change

From Alternate 90 in Houston to Farm to Market 1462 in Rosharon, FM 521 is signed North/South. From that intersection to the end of FM 521 in Palacios, the road is marked East/West.

Brazos River Bridge

FM 521 runs concurrently with State Highway 332 over the Brazos River bridge into Brazoria in Brazoria County. Plans are under way to build a new span as the old bridge has been there since the 1930s.

South Texas Project

FM 521 makes a half-loop around the South Texas Project nuclear plant, west of Wadsworth in Matagorda County. Parking along the highway is not allowed on a four mile (6 km) stretch from the west to the east sides of the plant.

References

  1. ^ a b Texas Department of Transportation, [1]
  2. ^ Google, Inc. Google Maps – Almeda Road at South MacGregor Way (Map). Cartography by Google, Inc. http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=29.711286,-95.381413&spn=0.004352,0.007253&t=h&z=17. Retrieved April 21, 2008. 
  3. ^ South Freeway, SH 288 Erik Slotboom, HoustonFreeways.com. Last accessed April 21, 2008.
  4. ^ Big plans for 288, but it could be better. Tory Gattis, Houston Strategies. Published February 22, 2007. Last accessed April 21, 2008.