Texas State Highway 40

State Highway 40
William D Fitch Pkwy
Route information
Maintained by TxDOT
Length:	3.0 mi[1] (4.8 km)
Existed:	1994[1] – present
Major junctions
West end:	FM 2154 at College Station
East end:	SH 6 at College Station
Location
Counties:	Brazos
Highway system
Highways in Texas Interstate US State Toll Loops Spurs FM/RM Park Rec ← SH 39 SH 41 →

State Highway 40 (SH 40) or William D. Fitch Parkway, runs from Farm to Market Road 2154 (FM 2154) to SH 6 in College Station, Texas. The current SH 40 was authorized in 1994. Signage for the highway went up March 2006 and the road was officially opened June 23, 2006.

SH 40 occupies the overpass and intersection with SH 6 that was formerly Greens Prairie Road, which was truncated and connected to SH 40 by Arrington Road West of SH 6. Greens Prairie Road and SH 40 were renamed in honor of William D. Fitch in August 2006.^[2] At SH 6, SH 40 terminates and becomes a local road (maintaining the Fitch Parkway name) continuing northeast to SH 30.

Route description

SH 40 begins at an intersection with FM 2154 (Wellborn Road) in College Station, Brazos County, heading southeast on William D. Fitch Parkway, a four-lane undivided road. The road heads near residential subdivisions, becoming a divided highway with the median widening to include woodland. The highway heads through more wooded areas with some fields and residential neighborhoods, turning to the east. SH 40 turns to the northeast and the median narrows, with the road becoming undivided again as it comes to its eastern terminus at an interchange with SH 6.^[1][3][4]

History

A previous highway, also called SH 40, existed from before 1920 until the mid-1930s, and ran from the Texas-Oklahoma boundary north of Gainesville down through Denton, Dallas and Beaumont before ending in Port Arthur. There was also a spur route that went from Denton and ended in Fort Worth. By 1926, this spur had become an extension of SH 10. All parts of this route were supplanted by highways in the U.S. Highway system by 1935. By 1926, SH 40 was rerouted over a portion of SH 37 between Rusk and southeast of Lufkin, while the old route was either cancelled or transferred to SH 37.

The Gainesville to Dallas portion became US 77 in 1929. In 1932, the Dallas to Jacksonville stretch had become part of US 175. The last remaining portion of old SH 40, Jacksonville to Port Arthur, became part of US 69 in 1935.

SH 40A was a spur route designated in 1928 going from St. Augustine south to Zavalla. By 1933, this route had renumbered as SH 8B (now SH 147).

Interstates 35E and 35W roughly follow the old SH 40 routes from Dallas and Fort Worth, respectively, to Denton, and the old route from Denton north is approximated by Interstate 35.

Major intersections

The entire route is in College Station, Brazos County.

mi[1]	km	Destinations	Notes
0.000	0.000	FM 2154 (Wellborn Road)
3.011	4.846	SH 6 (Earl Rudder Freeway) – College Station, Navasota	Interchange; future I-14
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

1. Transportation Planning and Programming Division (n.d.). "State Highway No. 40". Highway Designation Files. Texas Department of Transportation. Retrieved 2010-10-25.
2. http://www.cstx.gov/docs/fitch_invitation.pdf
3. County Grid Map 516 (PDF) (Map). Texas Department of Transportation. 2010. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
4. Google (October 10, 2011). "overview of Texas State Highway 40" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved October 10, 2011.