| US 69 | |||
| Begin | Port Arthur | ||
| End | Denison | ||
| Length | 352 mi | ||
| Length | 566 km | ||
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According to citypopulationreview.com, US 69 is a US Highway in the US state of Texas. The road forms a long north-south route in the east of the state, beginning in Port Arthur and then passing through Beaumont, Lufkin and Tyler to the Oklahoma border at Denison. The route is 566 kilometers long.
Travel directions
The US 69/96/287 in the Netherlands.
US 69 in Tyler County, 60 miles north of Beaumont.
The road, along with US 96 and US 287, begins on SH 87 in Port Arthur, a coastal city of 58,000. The road then becomes a highway and runs through the Netherlands to Beaumont, the last major city in eastern Texas with 114,000 inhabitants. The road here is double numbered with Interstate 10, the highway from Houston to New Orleans. Even after Beaumont, the road is still a highway for a while, until Lumberton, where the US 96towards Jasper. The US 69 and US 287 then continue together, the first part with 2×2 lanes, later with one lane in each direction. This area consists of dense tropical forests. It then follows for over 50 miles to Woodville, a large town where US 287 turns off toward Crockett and Palestine in the northwest, and crosses US 190, the main road from Huntsville and Livingston to Jasper and DeRidder in Louisiana. US 69 then continues its route north, but bends northwest from Zavalla, and after 80 kilometers reaches the town of Lufkin, which has 33,000 inhabitants.
There is a ring road around Lufkin, and it crosses US 59, the 2×2 highway from Houston to Marshall and Texarkana in the northeast. The US 69 then largely has 2×2 lanes until Lufkin, 130 kilometers to the north. The forests become less dense here, but continue to dominate. There are a number of smaller towns on the route. Rusk crosses US 84, the main road from Palestine to Mansfield in Louisiana. A little further, at Jacksonville you cross the US 79, the main road from Austin to Henderson. The US 175 also ends here, the main road to Athens and Dallasin the northwest. The road then continues north to Tyler, a regional town of 109,000 inhabitants, a fast-growing city. Tyler has a ring road, but no other US Highways are crossed here. A little past Tyler is the connection with Interstate 20, the highway from Dallas to Shreveport in Louisiana. After I-20, US 69 returns to one lane in each direction, and after 15 miles, Mineola crosses US 80, the 2×2 trunk road that parallels I-20 from Dallas to Longview.
The road then turns further northwest, and the forests slowly become less dense, with more fields. The area is still quite flat. There are several larger reservoirs in this area. After about 80 kilometers you reach the 24,000 inhabitants town of Greenville, a fairly important junction. Interstate 30, the highway from Dallas to Texarkana and Little Rock, intersects here with US 380 leading west to Denton and a northern bypass along the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.runs. After that, there are almost no forests at all and the road continues north through the prairies, and after about 40 miles it crosses US 82, a main road from Wichita Falls and Sherman to Paris and Texarkana. Not far afterwards you reach the town of Denison, which has 24,000 inhabitants. Here US 69 merges with US 75 highway coming from Dallas. Together they cross the Red River, also the border with Oklahoma. US 69 in Oklahoma then continues towards Tulsa.
History
US 69 was created in 1926 but then ran no further south than Kansas City. In 1935 the route was extended south to Port Arthur. The first section of highway to be built was the Beaumont South Bypass, which was completed in the 1980s or earlier. The highway around the Netherlands was opened around 2007. In 2010, a grade-separated connection opened at Bullard.
The 2×2 section originally ended from Beaumont about 15 miles north of Kountze in Hardin County. After 2020, this section has been widened further north into a 2×2 divided highway to Warren in Tyler County, a 20-kilometer stretch.
A bypass was planned at Jacksonville. With 15,000 inhabitants in the city and 50,000 inhabitants in the region, Jacksonville is one of the larger towns on the route of US 69 without a bypass. In March 2021, however, it was decided not to construct the bypass.
Traffic intensities
Every day 14,700 vehicles drive through Port Arthur, increasing to 60,000 vehicles passing through the Netherlands and 77,000 vehicles for the interchange with I-10 on the south side of Beaumont. The double numbering with I-10 has 126,000 vehicles, dropping to 105,000 vehicles north of I-10 and 50,000 vehicles in Lumberton.
The rest of the route drops to 6,000 to 10,000 vehicles to Lufkin, the quietest part even has only 2,500 vehicles. 40,000 vehicles drove around Lufkin and then again descending to 5,000 vehicles towards Rusk. Between Rusk and Jacksonville, 10,000 vehicles and 12,000 vehicles drove up to Tyler. The section through Tyler has a maximum of 31,000 vehicles, dropping to 24,000 vehicles north of I-20. From Mineola to Greenville, 4,000 to 5,000 vehicles and 3,000 to 6,000 vehicles continued to Denison.
