I-635 East gets $1.7B makeover

Sept. 17, 2026

By Kenna Mitchell

DALLAS — With golden scissors poised over a large ribbon, a quick cut by Texas Transportation Commissioner Robert C. Vaughn, state and local leaders marked the ceremonial end of the I-635 East project in September 2026.

The $1.7 billion project has transformed an 11-mile corridor between the US 75 and I-30, spanning through the cities of Dallas, Garland and Mesquite. Construction began in 2020, and improvements include widened highway lanes, enhanced city street connections and newly constructed continuous frontage roads.

With more than 200,000 vehicles in the corridor every day, the project team kept traffic flowing while new bridges, lanes and safety improvements took shape.

“The transformation of this corridor is a shining example of our Texas Clear Lanes efforts,” said Commissioner Vaughn. “The aggressive approach to put so many miles of I-635 under construction at the same time underscores the tremendous need to tackle the growing congestion here. This all-in approach rather than separate projects allowed savings in time and money.”

I-635 East Fast Facts

• 1,649,597 square feet of retaining walls constructed, enough to cover 29 football fields
• 111,161,739 pounds of reinforced steel used, equivalent to the weight of 31 Eiffel Towers
• 2,580,970 square yards of concrete poured, covering nearly four times the area of Central Park
• 295,655 linear feet of girders placed, almost enough to stretch from Dallas to Fort Worth and back
• 39,955,784 pounds of structural steel utilized, equivalent to the weight of 133 adult blue whales