State Highway 12 (Texas)

State Highway 12

Route information

Maintained by TxDOT

Length:

19.6 mi (31.5 km)

Existed:

1959 – present

Major junctions

West end:

I-10 / US 90 in Vidor

East end:

LA 12 near Deweyville

Location

Counties:

Orange, Newton

Highway system

Highways in Texas

← RE 11		Loop 12 →
← SH 234	SH 235	SH 236 →

State Highway 12 (SH 12) is an east–west state highway that runs from I-10 in Vidor to Deweyville on the Texas-Louisiana boundary in east Texas. The route was designated in 1959 as a renumbering of SH 235 to smooth the travel transition with Louisiana Highway 12, with which it connects.

SH 12 begins at an intersection with I-10 and US 90 on the north side of Vidor, and travels to the northeast. It travels through lightly populated country before reaching the Sabine River at Deweyville. The route continues into Louisiana as Louisiana Highway 12.

SH 12 was one of the original twenty six state highways proposed in 1917. It was an ambitious undertaking to construct a border-to-border highway hugging the southern Texas coast and border with Mexico, and was to be named the 'Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway.'

In 1917 the route followed present day Interstate 10 eastward from El Paso to roughly Esperanza. From there the road was proposed to go to Presidio (not built) and followed FM 170 from there to near Lajitas. It was proposed from there to hug the Rio Grande through Big Bend and towards Langtry (again, never built) where it would have met up with present day U.S. Highway 90. On US 90, the road would have gone into Del Rio and, via present day US 277, into Eagle Pass and though to Paso de Francia via present day FM 1021 and FM 1472 to Laredo. The Paso de Francia to Laredo segment was again, at the time never built. From Laredo to Pharr the road would have followed present day U.S. Highway 83. At Pharr, a spur of SH 12 would have continued east on US 83 to Brownsville. The main road went north on from Pharr on U.S. Highway 281 to Falfurrias then East on SH 285 into Riviera and north on U.S. Highway 77 towards Victoria, through to Houston on U.S. Highway 59 and finally US 90 to Orange.

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Wikipedia