Tuesday PM Drive in Dallas–Fort Worth: Tonight Brings Denton's Second Full I-35E Closure and Rockwall's I-30 Overnight Lanes — While the Morning's Two Accident Closures Are Already Reopened
The evening commute itself runs on the standing construction pattern, but tonight is a two-closure night: I-35E through Denton shuts completely from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. for the second straight night, and I-30 in Rockwall County loses lanes and Exit 68 overnight. Loop 12 and U.S. 81, closed by accidents this morning, are open again.
DALLAS–FORT WORTH — The Tuesday PM drive opens with the construction map, not an accident map. The two closures that shut roads this morning have both cleared: the accident that reduced northbound Loop 12 north of Interstate 30 to one lane overnight reopened at 6:45 a.m. UTC per the DriveTexas-sourced report read by this desk, and the accident that closed northbound U.S. 81 near SH-114 at Rhome this morning reopened at 3:40 p.m. UTC, with its detour lifted. Neither road carries a live closure into the evening drive.
Tonight's first full closure is in Denton, for the second straight night. Interstate 35E closes completely in both directions between North Texas Boulevard and Bonnie Brae Street from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. for bridge work on the freeway merge, with traffic diverted to the service roads, according to the traffic schedules compiled from TxDOT and local reporting and read by this desk. The work sits inside TxDOT's I-35 corridor and I-35E/I-35W interchange project — about 4.8 miles from North Texas Boulevard to U.S. 77, an estimated $583 million on TxDOT's project fact sheet with SEMA Construction as contractor, started spring 2025 and estimated to finish in summer 2029 — widening the freeway from four lanes to six and rebuilding the interchange that splits traffic toward Dallas and Fort Worth.
The second overnight pattern is on the Metroplex's east side. On Interstate 30 in Rockwall County, the westbound right lane between Erby Campbell Boulevard and FM 35 closes from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. for crews pinning concrete traffic barriers, a nightly pattern running through November 16, and alternating westbound lanes plus Exit 68 may close as needed from John King Boulevard to State Highway 205 through November 14 for barrier and pavement-marking work, according to the TxDOT closure schedule reported by East DFW News on November 6 and read by this desk. The daytime flagging operation on the westbound frontage road between FM 2642 and FM 551 ran 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today and has ended for the day. The practical line for tonight: Denton drivers should plan the frontage roads after 9 p.m., and Rockwall drivers should expect a single-lane westbound I-30 after dark.
