Texas State Highway 35

US 87

State Highway 35, or SH 35, is a largely north–south highway in southeastern and southern Texas between Houston, junction of I-45 on the southeast side of the city and Corpus Christi, where it terminates on I-37.

SH 35 takes a generally north–south route from Houston to Angleton, junction SH 288, and then roughly parallels the inlets of the Gulf of Mexico in a roughly northeast-southwest course through a low, flat coastal plain. To the south and west of Palacios it gives vistas of several inlets of the Gulf of Mexico, becoming one of the more scenic routes of southern Texas.

At Gregory it meets and joins U.S. Highway 181, which coincide to their mutual terminus over a causeway and bridge over Corpus Christi Bay, meeting I-37 and SH 286 at a freeway interchange.

Only in its southernmost part near Corpus Christi is State Highway 35 a freeway, although significant stretches of it are divided highway. It is not to be confused with Interstate 35, which it never meets. It is not the shortest or quickest route between Houston and Corpus Christi, which consists largely of US 59 and US 77.

Future of SH 35

In Houston, SH 35 is Telephone Road and Reveille Street from its northern terminus at Interstate 45. An upgrade of the facility (in a slightly different corridor) to freeway standards is planned, tentatively named the Alvin Freeway. As of 2006, only 1.3 miles (approximately 2 km) had been built, under the sign Spur 5 (constructed between 1996–99; officially opened September 1999). However, the mainlanes extend less than half a mile south of Interstate 45 adjacent to the campus of the University of Houston.

An overlap of Highway 35 with the Gulf Freeway was also constructed in the 1980s. This portion extends from Spur 5 to Dowling Street, a distance of about 1.6 miles (2.6 km). This section contains three elevated lanes in each direction (briefly four southbound lanes near the southern terminus). This overlap section is 22 lanes wide, including mainlanes, feeder roads, and a reversible HOV lane.^[2]

Once built, the Alvin Freeway is planned to follow a corridor near Mykawa Road from the terminus to Beltway 8 before returning to its normal undivided state.

History

SH 35 was originally proposed in 1919 as a route from Paris to Houston.  In 1926 the northern half of the highway had been redesignated as SH 49, with the new northern end now going east to the Louisiana border. By 1938, it had been extended southwest along cancelled SH 58 and SH 57, ending in Corpus Christi. In 1942, the section north of Houston was removed when it was renumbered as U.S. Highway 59.

SH 35A was a proposed spur route off SH 35, with a route splitting off at  Livingston, and travelling south via Liberty and Devers to Anahuac.  By 1926, the section between Devers and Anahuac renumbered as SH 61. By 1928, the Livingston to Liberty section was renumbered as SH 132. In 1933, that became a portion of SH 146.

Junction List

See also

• Copano Bay Fishing Pier

References