President George Bush Turnpike

The President George Bush Turnpike (PGBT) is a toll road running through the northern, northeastern and western suburbs, forming a partial loop around Dallas, Texas, United States. It is named for George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States. At its west end near Belt Line Road in Irving, State Highway 161 (SH 161) continues southwest to Interstate 20 in Grand Prairie. The discontinuous free frontage roads along the Turnpike from Interstate 35E in Carrollton east to its end at Interstate 30 in Garland are assigned the State Highway 190 (SH 190) designation. “190 TEXAS” signage appears only along the Garland, Richardson, Plano, and Carrollton sections of the frontage road with the undersign “frontage road only.” At intersections with city streets, only the Bush Turnpike signs are displayed, not the “190 TEXAS” signage. Prior to the construction of the main lanes as a tollway, SH 190 was used as the name of the planned main lanes too. Similarly, the part west of I-35E was planned as part of SH 161. Bush Turnpike is signed as an east–west road east of I-35E and as a north–south road west (i.e., south) of I-35E, as Bush Turnpike makes a nearly 90-degree curve immediately west of its I-35E interchange. The turnpike is operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA). Currently, all maintenance is done under a five-year Total Routine Maintenance (TRM) contract with Infrastructure Corporation of America (ICA) based in Brentwood, Tennessee that started in November 2006. The turnpike passes through three Texas counties (Dallas, Collin and Denton) and nine Dallas suburbs (Rowlett, Sachse, Garland, Richardson, Plano, Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Irving and Grand Prairie). Originally PGBT was equipped with traditional toll plazas for cash payment as well as RFID-based TollTag express lanes. However on July 1, 2009 the cash plazas were closed and replaced with “ZipCash”, an OCR-based camera system which reads the license plate and bills the owner by mail. This made the turnpike the first in the United States to transition to all-electronic toll collection. The ZipCash rates, however, come at a premium being significantly higher than both the TollTag rate and the earlier cash prices.