Farm to Market Road 3078

Ranch to Market Road 3078 (RM 3078) was on June 21, 1966 originally the designation of a 7.0-mile (11.3 km) road in Maverick County extending northeastward from the former SH 76, a road that would become SH 57 that same year, and then US 57 since 1971. On April 25, 1978, RM 3078 was extended an additional 4.0 miles (6.4 km) and was re-designated as a farm to market road. On January 23, 1980, the route was extended an additional 17.7 miles (28.5 km) through Zavala County to FM 481 at the county line between Zavala and Uvalde counties. On July 8, 1983, the route was designated as an extension of FM 481.[1]

The present route was originally part of SH 27. That highway had been proposed as early as 1919[2] and, after TxDOT's predecessor, the Texas Highway Department, gained authority to maintain state highways in 1924,[3] SH 17 had become part of the state highway system by 1933 and concurrent with US 290.[4] By 1939, the SH 27 designation along the present day FM 3078 had been cancelled.[5]

In the early 1980s, the I-10 bypass around Balmorhea and Toyahvale had been completed. With the completion of the Interstate, US 290 through much of West Texas became largely concurrent with the Interstate separating only to serve as a sort of business route into towns bypassed by the Interstate. With the creation of Interstate business routes, US 290 became obsolete on the portion running along I-10 and its route designation over that portion was canceled on November 21, 1991.[6] The entire portion of US 290 through Toyahvale and Balmorhea, part of which was concurrent with SH 17, did not become a new Interstate business route. Instead, Business Route 10-F separated from I-10 at FM 2903 to enter Balmorhea and rejoin the Interstate along SH 17.[7] FM 3078 was designated in 1992 along the portion of US 290 between I-10 and SH 17 to allow that stretch of highway not concurrent with SH 17 to have a highway designation when the US 290 designation was canceled.