Abilene Reporter-News, Texas, Big Country Journal column

Feb. 26--DUBLIN -- There's a lot to like here. Old Doc's Soda Shop. The Dublin Rodeo Heritage Museum. The Friday night catfish buffet at Granny Clark's.

But if you're heading to Dublin, there's one other thing you have to consider: the traffic.

Specifically, the intersection of State Highway 6 and U.S. Highway 67/377, known locally as Blackjack and Patrick streets, respectively. It's dead in the center of town, and although the intersection rarely is empty, there are certain days of the week you don't want to be anywhere near it.

"You should see Friday afternoons in football season when Stephenville is playing Brownwood on opening weekend of deer season," said Karen Wright, executive director of the Dublin Economic Development Corp.

"One year, I got on top of the Dr Pepper plant with my camera and a long lens and shot back as far as I could see," Wright said. "Over the hill toward Dairy Queen, it was bumper to bumper."

How far is that? It's about half the length of town, or at least a mile.

"We first took a delegation to Austin about 14 years ago to plead with the Texas Highway Commission because we were so deadlocked in this town," Wright said. "We probably took 15 local business owners, most of them from the downtown area."

The wheels of government grind slowly, but after studies, traffic counts and construction, the first half of a relief route, called the Dublin Loop, is slated for completion this spring. It will stretch west from U.S. 67/377 North to join State Highway 6.

Construction began in January on the second half, which will take the loop from State Highway 6 to U.S. 67/377 south. TxDOT officials said they expect it to be finished in summer 2015.

The legacy of Big Country bypasses, at least where area economies are concerned, has been debatable. Stamford's bypass opened in 1987, requested by the city for reasons similar to Dublin's.

In a Dec. 18, 1988, Reporter-News story, Denise Underwood, executive director of the Stamford Chamber of Commerce, said the effects of the bypass on the town's economy appeared to be negligible.

"The ones who are going to shop Stamford are coming here anyway," Underwood said at the time.

But 25 years later, many of the businesses mentioned in the story no longer are around. Whether it's because of the bypass or other reasons is the big question. But when Haskell's bypass was put in years later, memories of Stamford's experience weighed heavily on the public's mind.

But although the economies of towns such as Stamford or Dublin may suffer as the result of the installation of a bypass, the conditions that call for a new route can't be ignored, either.

At the Dublin Insurance Agency, Ike Wade said he prefers to walk from his bookkeeping office farther up the block on Patrick Street. It's safer than driving.

"I walk down, I don't dare try to park out here because you can't get back on the road," Wade said. "It's the same way in front of my office and I'm up a block."

He said 1990 was the year traffic began getting worse.

"Luckily, in 2001 they finished the section (of U.S. 67/377) between Stephenville and Dublin," Wade said, adding that before its expansion, it was a two-lane, heavily traveled highway. He remembered the year because that was when his son Sam got a driver's license.

"It was just like Highway 6," Wade said. "It was called 'Blood Alley' because there were so many accidents."

Wade said he witnessed several wrecks from his office.

"And one of them was my son," he recalled, adding that his offspring was unharmed. "It was after a driver said, 'C'mon, it's OK,' and then the driver who said that hit him."

Steve Hightower, owner of the insurance agency, said he was looking forward to the change.

"I think it may cause some problems, of course. Hopefully, it will bring some advantages as well," Hightower said. "I just think we need to do a good job of inviting people to come downtown."

But like in Stamford 25 years ago, not everyone is happy to see the loop come through.

From what Harry Bradberry has heard, the loop is going to have one serious flaw -- no exits.

"If that's true, then it's really not going to be of great benefit, in my opinion, to the town," he said.

He's the owner of Bradberry's Best, a feed store located at the south end of Patrick Street but still north of where the loop will rejoin 67/377.

"As far as businesses springing up around the route, it is a controlled-access highway," said Natalie Galindo, public information officer with the Texas Department of Transportation'sFort Worth District, which has responsibility for the project. "So, no."

At the points where the loop crosses State Highway 6 and FM 219, Galindo said, businesses could be established on those roads near the access points. But for the majority of the loop's approximate 6-mile length, there'll be nothing to distract a motorist other than the occasional DPS trooper and his radar gun.

"If you don't have exits, then it's just like having a convenience store on the sideline at Texas Motor Speedway," Bradberry said. "I can only speak for myself -- if I'm on a 70-mile-an-hour highway, I don't normally stop. I finally got to a-rolling, and now I'm on my way."

It's worrisome for his business because many of the hunters in the vehicles that Wright could see stretched out toward the Dairy Queen used to stop at his feed store to take a break or get supplies.

"We aim at those deer hunters," Bradberry said. "We are an ideal location to travel for about an hour, stop, go to the restroom and get them a cup of coffee."

Bradberry said he has opposed the idea of the loop from the beginning, and took his own group of concerned residents to Austin to voice their opinions as well. But members found themselves in the minority.

"They want the little town to be a quiet, Saturday evening Norman Rockwell painting. Well I don't; I want diesel smoke in the air," he said with a laugh. "Because that equates to dollars."

It's water under the bridge now, though. The die has been cast, and Dublin only can hope for a better outcome than what Stamford residents experienced a quarter-century ago.

"It's happening," Bradberry said, "so whatever is inevitable might as well be enjoyable."

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