DALLAS — Just a week before 2024, the North Texas Tollway Authority agreed unanimously to extend the Dallas North Tollway six miles, through Prosper and Celina. It will also extend the tollway from U.S. 380 to FM 428 by adding three lanes in each direction.

Donyell McGlathery has been living in Celina for more than five years. While driving around, she looks at the growth happening in her community. “One of the things with the growth is like the problem with it, right?,” she said. 

“And you’re like, my God, when did this get here? So the growth is kind of like intriguing to me. I like to see it. I like to see all the new roads. They have so many things that are actually coming to Celina and the Prosper area,” she continued. 

McGlathery is a real estate agent and says many of her clients are looking to move there, just north of Dallas. Now that the tollway is going to extend into her community, she hopes it will ease the traffic.

“Like sometimes we’re waiting at stop signs or they need to develop leads and traffic gets really congested because we don’t have the travel opportunities of a built-up community,” McGlathery said. 

“This is an area — as the people who live there will know — of great growth, and much more is planned. I think developers have for years now been planning for this road to come into existence,” said Michael Rey, media relations manager for NTTA.  

According to NTT is looking to expand roads in other areas. A specific area of interest is the expansion of the Arches and Trail Parkway, connecting Fort Worth to Johnson County. “The city of Cleveland specifically will see and expansion of that roadway as well,” Rey said. 

While toll roads are expanding in the DFW area, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, in Austin, is increasing tolls from .02 to .07 cents because of inflation.

“So I kinda am in favor of the expansion of the Dallas North Dallas Tollway and excited about it," McGlathery said. 

But not all drivers will be happy with paying extra toll charges that will come with this new tollway.

Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2024. The six-mile expansion is planned to open to traffic by the end of 2027, weather permitting.