Ring road

A ring road (also known as beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town or city.

Nomenclature

The name "ring road" is used for the majority of metropolitan circumferential routes in the European Union, such as the Berliner Ring, the Brussels Ring, the Amsterdam Ring, the Boulevard Périphérique around Paris and the Leeds Inner and Outer ring roads. Australia and India also use the term ring road, as in Melbourne's Western Ring Road and Hyderabad's Outer Ring Road. In Canada the term is the most commonly used, with "orbital" also used to a much lesser extent.

In Europe, some ring roads, particularly those of motorway standard which are longer in length, are often known as "orbital motorways". Examples include the London Orbital (188 km), Rome Orbital (68 km) and Manchester Orbital (56 km).

In the United States, many ring roads are called beltlines, beltways, or loops, such as the Capital Beltway around Washington, D.C. Some ring roads, such as Washington's Capital Beltway, use "Inner Loop" and "Outer Loop" terminology for directions of travel, since cardinal (compass) directions cannot be signed uniformly around the entire loop. The term 'ring road' is occasionally – and inaccurately – used interchangeably with the term 'bypass'.

Loop (Texarkana)

The Loop is a beltway around Texarkana, a twin city in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Texas, running about 16 miles (26 km). Consisting a section of Interstate 49 in Arkansas, and Loop 151 and a section of I-369 and U.S. Highway 59 in Texas, it forms a three-quarter loop around the east, south and west sides of the city. (Interstate 30 completes the circle on the north side.) The Loop is built to Interstate Freeway Standards.

The south side is bisected by State Line Avenue, which runs north–south along the state line. The whole half in Arkansas is Highway 151; US 59 intersects the Loop near the southwest corner, and so only the south side in Texas is Loop 151. Old US 59 into Texarkana (Lake Drive) is now State Highway 93.

Route description

Arkansas

North of the junction with Highway 549 and U.S. Highway 71, The former Highway 245 is part of the north–south Corridor, a planned extension of Interstate 49 north to Kansas City. (This extension will also include Highway 549.)

The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department submitted this piece, as well as its continuation west to the state line, as Interstate 130 (I-130) in fall 2000. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials denied the part from US 71 west to Texas, as "the state of Texas has not submitted a companion application for a suitable terminus in Texas", but the piece from US 71 north to I-30 was approved on December 8, 2000 as Future I-130. Once it is upgraded to Interstate standards and added to the Interstate Highway System by the Federal Highway Administration, it will be signed as I-130.

Texas State Highway Beltway 8

Beltway 8 (BW8), the Sam Houston Parkway, along with the Sam Houston Tollway, is an 83-mile (134 km) beltway around the city of Houston, Texas, United States, lying entirely within Harris County.

Beltway 8, a state highway, runs mostly along the frontage roads of the tollway, only using the main lanes where they are free between Interstate Highway 45 (North Freeway) and Interstate Highway 69/U.S. 59 (Eastex Freeway). The main lanes elsewhere are the Sam Houston Tollway, a toll road owned and operated by the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA). East of Houston, the Tollway crosses the Houston Ship Channel on the Sam Houston Ship Channel Bridge, a toll bridge; this forms a gap in Beltway 8 between Interstate Highway 10 (Baytown-East Freeway) and State Highway 225 (La Porte Freeway).

Beltway 8 is the intermediate beltway in the Houston area. The inner beltway - Interstate Highway 610 - lies mostly within Houston (except for an approximate two mile (3 km) stretch that runs through the City of Bellaire), and the outer beltway — State Highway 99 (Grand Parkway) — is currently open to traffic, with other various segments under construction, or planning.