ST9904-CS100218$1 billion DFW Connector project will ease Grapevine highway mess, but the work will b... Page 1 of 3
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$1 billion DFW Connector project will ease Grapevine highway
mess, but the work will be painful
12:34 AM CST on Thursday, February 18, 2010
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
mlindenberger@dallasnews.com
Construction crews began work Wednesday on an enormously complex $1 billion highway project in
Grapevine that will eventually smooth the daily commutes for hundreds of thousands of North Texas
drivers weary of the constant sight of taillights.
The nation's top highway official joined nearly a dozen state and local officials to celebrate the start of
work on the DFW Connector, and to mark what will be the beginning of a frighteningly busy time for
highway builders throughout North Texas, but especially in Tarrant County.
The DFW Connector, once known as the Grapevine Funnel, will take more than four years to complete.
It will untangle the famously traffic- clogged interchange between State Highway 114 and State
Highway 121 near downtown Grapevine, and will benefit those traveling to nearby Dallas /Fort Worth
International Airport and to downtown Dallas.
The project will create an 8.4 -mile stretch of highway that will be nearly 30 lanes wide in places.
It also will seriously snarl area traffic for years to come. And for the first time in the modern era, it will
put toll lanes on a Texas highway entirely paid for by tax dollars.
Grapevine Mayor Pro Tem Shane Wilbanks hailed the day as a historic one. He joined a string of state
and federal dignitaries to praise the unusual partnership that joined state gasoline tax dollars, state -
backed debt and $250 million in federal stimulus funds to create what many there called a fix for the
worst traffic problem in North Texas.
'We can survive this'
But the progress won't come without pain, especially for businesses in downtown Grapevine worried
about the work's impact on sales and for already frustrated drivers in the region.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we can survive this," Wilbanks said.
But he conceded that the construction, which will employ up to 700 workers and use enough pavement
to stretch a two -lane highway to Waco, will mean enduring years of "delays, noise, dust and
inconvenience."
The good news, he said, is the construction won't last forever.
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"When we first started talking about this process, we were talking about 10 years. Now we're looking to
be finished in less than five," he said.
In the next couple of years, crews will begin work on a slate of billion - dollar highway projects that will
eventually transform North Texas' highway system. With the massive LBJ Freeway rebuild in Dallas,
the final stages of SH 161 in western Dallas County, the North Tarrant Express and Southwestern
Parkway in Tarrant County, motorists will see plenty of orange- vested workers and caution signs before
the DFW Connector is complete.
Construction on the connector will begin immediately. And executives from the two companies building
the road — Kiewit Texas Construction of Fort Worth and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio —
said Wednesday that steps will be taken to create temporary lanes and other measures to help minimize
the lane closures and other snafus expected with the construction.
"We know you love us now, when we are just getting started," said Scott Cassels, president Kiewit
Infrastructure Group. "But we want you to love us four or five years from now when we are finished."
Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez said the project meets nearly all of the requirements laid
out by the Obama administration for highway projects it will most support.
"The main thing about this project was the level of congestion that occurs here during peak hours," he
said. "Your regional planning agency [the North Central Texas Council of Governments] really did a
good job of looking out into the future. I think they have estimated that some 300,000 drivers will travel
on this road daily by 2030. That's the kind of long -term thinking we need more of."
The project, though, is more than just a badly needed highway. For one thing, it stands as a rare example
of a major highway paid for without the need of a single penny of money backed by future toll revenues.
Every bit of the road's cost is paid for by taxpayers.
Just as important, the DFW Connector is among Texas' biggest examples yet of a new approach to
building major infrastructure, a process known as design- build.
For decades, the law required the Texas Department of Transportation to hire a firm to complete the
design of a highway first — and to do so subject to hundreds of rules and criteria closely monitored by
state engineers. Only then would the job be put out for bids by builders who would be required to follow
the state - approved design to the letter.
That process kept nearly all of the control over a project's quality and materials in the state's hands, but it
also was at times excruciatingly slow.
By contrast, the DFW Connector will be built under a single contract that includes both its design and
construction. That change means that as long as they abide by the terms of a contract with the state, the
builders will be free to pursue creative approaches to the construction, and to find cost savings where
they can.
That's the kind of innovation that Mendez, and all of the state leaders present Wednesday, hailed as
critical if Texas will be able to pay the costs of keeping traffic moving in the face of continued
population growth.
But for toll -weary drivers in North Texas, where tolls seem to have become more common and more
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costly every year, the decision to pursue the project under the rules of a design -build contract has
consequences not everyone will like.
Under state law, such a contract can only be used on a road that is at least partially tolled.
And to pass that hurdle, state and local leaders agreed to put tolls on portions of the DFW Connector,
even though they aren't needed to fund its construction, said John Barton, assistant executive director of
the Texas Department of Transportation.
Toll lanes, too
As a result, two toll lanes will be added in each direction along four miles, or most of the highway's
east -to -west stretch. Rates will fluctuate depending on traffic levels, but will generally be higher than the
average rate charged on North Texas Tollway Authority roads.
Grapevine blogger Joe Thomas, who runs Grapevine TxOnline.com, criticized the inclusion of toll lanes
during a discussion at dallasnews.com Wednesday.
"Why would we spend $1 billion ... of our tax dollars only to add additional taxes in the form of toll
lanes ?" he wrote. "The people bearing the load of the tax will be residents in Grapevine, Colleyville,
Southlake and Keller who use these roadways every day."
But others said tolls were simply a way of keeping up with America's infrastructure needs.
State Rep. Vicki Truitt, R- Keller, reminded those in the crowd Wednesday that at every point along the
new highway, drivers will be able to stay on free lanes.
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DFW Connector means big changes for commuters I Dallas - Fort Worth News I wfaa.co... Page 1 of 1
DFW Connector means big changes for
commuters
by CRAIG CIVALE / WFAA -TV
Posted on February 17, 2010 at 9:16 PM
Updated yesterday at 11:08 PM
GRAPEVINE — Construction is set to begin on the DFW Connector, a billion dollar
project that will rebuild the congested Highway 121/114 corridor at the north end of
Dallas /Fort Worth International Airport.
Officials ceremoniously broke ground Wednesday; work will begin in earnest next week.
The four -year project will add additional lanes along an eight -mile stretch that includes
portions of Interstate 635 and State Highways 114, 121, and 36o.
Some of the new pavement will be managed (toll) lanes, but there will also be free lanes
for drivers to have choice.
Tolls will cost more during busier times of the day, and reduced when there is less traffic.
Among the first changes commuters will see: Adding service roads to Highway 121 just
north of the airport and adding additional lanes to the Main Street bridge in Grapevine.
When finished, officials say the DFW Connector will curb congestion along the roadways,
which serve a quarter of a million drivers every day.
E -mail ccivale @Wfaa.com
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DFW Connector Highway Construction Project by Northgate Constructors
Safer. Cleaner. faster.
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PROJECT OVERVIEW YOUR COMMUTE NEWSROOM WORKING TOGETHER CONTACT US
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Click on color-coded roadway sections for project details.
NEWS PREV I PAUSE I NEXT
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µ 4 'sj $• ,+ r .y at our upcoming open house. Taking place at the Grapevine
� 114 ',a'� Convention Center on Wednesday, February 17, 2010, the DF'VV
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Grapevine _ - the plvject and ask questions to the people that know the project
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'JI£1� 114 ° c:l best. The event will begin at 4:00 p. m, and conclude at 8:00
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114 p,m. with a presentation at 6:30 p.m.
121 47
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