Construction of the U.S. Highway 82 expansion phase one is progressing on schedule, but Texas Department of Transportation officials reported this past week the bid letting dates for the remaining phases have been pushed out three years.
The overall 24.7-mile expansion will continue the four-lane highway that runs into Nocona from the east in Cooke County, but goes back down to two lanes just past the western city limits. That original highway was completed back in 1972 with promises it would be completed all the way to Henrietta, but it never happened. The project popped back up on the state’s radar in 2016, and a short time later it was on the drawing board.
Phase one runs from State Highway 175 in Nocona to Farm-to-Market 1816 and west to Milam Road all along U.S. 82 to just east of Ringgold. A completion date of March 2023 is the target.

Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.