| SH 6 | |||
| Get started | La Marque | ||
| End | Quanah | ||
| Length | 476 mi | ||
| Length | 767 km | ||
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According to itypejob, State Route 6, more commonly known as State Highway 6 or SH 6, is a state route in the US state of Texas. The road forms a long north-south route from Le Marque near Houston through College Station and Waco to the Oklahoma border . SH 6 is a freeway in two places, namely in the College Station region and the Waco region. Furthermore, the road is a bypass of Houston and with US 290 double-numbered as a freeway, but the route around Houston is not a freeway. SH 6 is 767 kilometers long.
Travel directions
SH 6 at Navasota.
The SH 6 / Loop 340 at Waco.
Houston
SH 6 begins at La Marque southeast of Houston on the Gulf Freeway (I-45). The road is then a largely straight, single lane road that runs to the northwest. The road is special in that it is not integrated into the radial road structure of the Houston area, and leads to Sugar Land, where the road branches off to the north. It crosses the Southwest Freeway (US 59) and Katy Freeway (I-10) in western Houston. This section of SH 6 is a major corridor and the road is mostly six lanes with a center turn lane. In northwest Houston, SH 6 joins the Northwest Freeway(US 290) into, and then continues to be double-numbered to Hempstead, outside of Houston.
Central Texas
The road then turns off US 290 and heads north in a single lane to Navasota. On the north side of Navasota begins the freeway that is effectively the bypass of College Station, a college town not served by Interstate Highways. SH 6 is the only freeway around College Station. To the north of College Station is double-numbered with US 190. At the edge of College Station, the freeway ends and SH 6 continues in two lanes northwest, parallel to the Brazos River.
One then reaches the Waco metropolitan area, one of the larger cities along Interstate 35. From I-35, SH 6 is a 2×2 lane freeway that forms a southbound bypass of Waco. Outside Waco, the road narrows again to a two-lane main road.
North Texas
The route then continues north-west and is a bit more secondary in character here. The route mainly serves small towns. At Eastland, one crosses Interstate 20, whereupon the route curves further north, passing through the sparsely populated prairies of North Texas. There are also mainly small towns on the route here, but you do cross quite a lot of US Highways, since the network is quite dense here. Halfway between Wichita Falls and Amarillo, you cross the important US 287, after which the border with Oklahoma follows at the Red River.
History
US 190 / SH 6 at Bryan.
Houston
According to itypeusa, Houston bypass SH 6 has been around since the 1940s. At the time, the road was still a long way from the city, about 20 miles west of what was then Houston. In the 1970s, the western neighborhoods reached SH 6, but the road was still two-lane at the time. In the 1980s, the first businesses began to settle around SH 6, and the road was widened to 4 lanes. In the late 1980s or early 1990s the road was further widened to 7 lanes with a center turn lane. So this part is not a divided highway. Although SH 6 is not a freeway, it is one of the main sub-links of Houston’s highway network, especially due to a nearby nature reserve in western Houston, there aren’t many other through north-south roads.
College Station
The College Station bypass is believed to have been constructed in the 1980s. During the 1970s, the city’s population grew strongly, growing from a large village to a city with amenities. It wasn’t until 2006-2008 that the highway was extended south to Navasota.
Waco
The highway around Waco dates back to the 1980s or earlier. The connection with I-35 was originally a cloverleaf cloverleaf, but the interchange was converted to a clover star in 2005-2007 with a direct flyover and wider clover loops.
Traffic intensities
Every day, 8,600 vehicles run between La Marque and Alvin and 22,000 to 50,000 vehicles between Alvin and Sugar Land, south of Houston. Sugar Land drove 48,000 vehicles and up to 58,000 vehicles through western Houston, south of I-10. From Hempstead to Navasota, 18,000 vehicles and 24,000 vehicles continued to College Station. The busiest point around College Station has 67,000 vehicles. This is then about 10,000 vehicles further to Waco, making SH 6 a relatively busy interurban connection in Central Texas.
In Waco, 60,000 vehicles drove west of I-35, dropping to 20,000 vehicles west of the city. After that, the road becomes noticeably quieter. At Cliften, 7,000 vehicles and 1,900 to 2,800 vehicles drove further west around Dublin. Off I-20 in Eastland, 3,300 vehicles and only 700 vehicles continued as far as Albany. This drops further to 600 vehicles for Stamford and 500 vehicles to Rule. Further north, 900 to 1,400 vehicles drove as far as Quanah and 500 vehicles on the Oklahoma border.
