Honkin' Mad

Texans driving way too fast in work zones, officials say

@gdickson

One particularly heart-tugging image seen in some highway work zones is an orange sign bearing the message: "Please slow down. My dad works here."

But while that sign appeals for the safety of highway workers, in reality four of every five people killed in a work zone is a motorist.

"We want the public to crank up their awareness," said Lonny Haschel, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman.

Haschel joined officials from the North Texas Tollway Authority and Texas Department of Transportation on Tuesday at a work zone site along Interstate 20. Speaking on a newly built bridge over the interstate, the group called for motorists to bear greater responsibility for their actions on the road.

"There is over $11 billion in construction in the North Texas area, with more on the way," said Brian Barth, Fort Worth deputy district engineer for the state transportation department. "Your daily commute to work and school is changing on a daily basis and we need every driver to stay alert."

Work zone fatalities have fallen 39 percent during the past decade, said Elizabeth Mow, tollway authority assistant executive director of infrastructure.

Still, last year 134 people were killed statewide in work zone crashes.

"We need the public's help to complete the picture," Mow said.

Speeding and driver inattention are the leading causes of work zone fatalities, Haschel said.

Distractions such as talking or texting on a mobile device are also a major problem, Barth said.

National Work Zone Safety Awareness week is this week. The groups chose Tuesday's site for their press conference because it is part of the Chisholm Trail Parkway project, a 28-mile toll road from downtown Fort Worth to Cleburne that is scheduled to open next year.

The Chisholm Trail Parkway project has created work zones across a swath of southwestern Tarrant County, crossing Interstate 30, I-20, Hulen Street and Texas 183 (Southwest Boulevard).

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Two new bridges will make Riverside an alternate to I-35W

Fort Worth is pressing ahead with construction of two new North Riverside Drive bridges over Loop 820 and Big Fossil Creek, despite lingering objections from area residents.

Hurstview bridge opens Saturday in Hurst - North Tarrant Express halfway done

- @gdickson and @fwstevans

HURST - Motorists will once again find it easier to move north and south through Hurst.

The new Hurstview Drive bridge over Texas 121/183 will open at 10 a.m. Saturday, officials with the North Tarrant Express project said.

The bridge had been closed since April, as part of the $2.5 billion freeway makeover known as North Tarrant Express.

Officials also announced Friday that the North Tarrant Express project, which began in January 2011, had reached its halfway point. The developer has promised to complete its work by the end of June 2015, according to its contract with the Texas Department of Transportation. With the announcement that the work had reached its halfway point, it would appear that construction is roughly six months ahead of schedule - but officials with the project declined to discuss specifics, other than to say they were on schedule to meet their deadline.

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North Tarrant Express is a $2.5 billion makeover of Northeast Loop 820 and Texas 121/183 in Northeast Tarrant County. The developer is NTE Mobility Partners, which is a team of companies led by the U.S. subsidiary of Spain-based Cintra.

NTE Mobility Partners spokesman Robert Hinkle announced the opening of the Hurstview Bridge and the project's 50 percent completion Friday morning during a Northeast Tarrant Transportation Summit held by Tarrant County Commissioner Gary Fickes.

Speaking to an audience of several hundred people in Hurst, Hinkle quipped that Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley had been asking him about twice a week for many months when the Hurstview Bridge would re-open.

"Judge Whitley lives on the north side of the bridge, and his church is on the south side," Hinkle said. "He's been telling me it's my fault people are not getting to God. I'm waking up in the middle of the night thinking about that."

While the opening of the Hurstview Bridge likely will be cheered by motorists trying to get from one side of Hurst to another, it may not make much of a difference for traffic passing through the city.

The eastbound frontage road between Precinct Line Road and Cavender Drive will be closed for up to three months - meaning drivers using the Hurstview Bridge won't have a direct connection to Texas 121/183.

"You can go north and south across the bridge, but you won't be able to turn east onto the frontage road," said Lara Kohl, spokeswoman for Bluebonnet Constructors, the firm overseeing construction. "This is a local access bridge only, not connected to the main lanes of the expressway, and it never was. We anticipate three months to reconstruct the frontage roads in that area."

 

Major weekend closure on Texas 121/183 begins at noon Friday

@gdickson

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BEDFORD – A major road closure that is scheduled to begin at noon Friday in Bedford could leave motorists passing through Northeast Tarrant County stuck in delays. Both directions of Brown Trail will be closed at the Texas 121/183 overpass from noon Friday through 10 a.m. Sunday, said an official with Bluebonnet Contractors, the firm overseeing the multi-billion-dollar North Tarrant Express project in the corridor.

The contractor has communicated with nearby L.D. Bell High School about how the closure will affect students, parents and teachers leaving the school Friday afternoon, spokeswoman Lara Kohl said. “We’ll be working closely with L.D. Bell to make sure their buses and students can get through,” Kohl said. “We’re going to let pedestrians cross until 7 p.m.” Vehicles also will be allowed to use the frontage road until about 7 p.m., but after that will be detoured to nearby Harwood Road or Bedford-Euless Road.

Workers are demolishing the old Brown Trail bridge and moving traffic to the new bridge. Traffic on the Texas 121/183 main lanes will be shifted to area frontage roads from 9 p.m. Friday to 10 a.m. Saturday, and 9 p.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday, to make room for demolition. During those overnight hours, the frontage roads will be used for freeway traffic and will not be available for frontage access, Kohl said.

The $2.5 billion, 13-5-mile project extends from Interstate 35W in north Fort Worth Industrial Boulevard in Euless.

More: northtarrantexpress.com

Gordon Dickson, 817-390-7796 Twitter: @gdickson

NASCAR traffic moving smoothly to races at Texas Motor Speedway

@gdickson

No unusual traffic problems are expected during the big race weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, even though a bunch of roads leading to the mega-track - including Texas 114 right outside its south entrance - are in the midst of reconstruction.

As of 5:30 p.m. Friday night, traffic is moving along nicely, as motorists heading home for the weekend in the I-35W/Texas 114 corridor jockey for space on the roads with fun-seekers heading to tonight's WinStar World Casino 350 Camping World Truck Series race, which starts at 7 p.m.

Texas negotiates $1.6 billion deal to expand I-35W - most congested road in state

@gdickson

The Texas Department of Transportation has reached a tentative, $1.6 billion deal with a private developer to expand Interstate 35W in north Fort Worth. The work is expected to begin in mid-2013 and be completed by mid-2018.

The stretch of I-35W in northern Tarrant County is the most congested roadway in the state, according to a report released by the state transportation department in late August.

A draft version of the agreement between the transportation department and the developer, North Tarrant Express Mobility Partners, will be available for public inspection at 6 p.m. Thursday at the TxDot Fort Worth District Regional Training Center, 2501 Southwest Loop 820, Fort Worth (map below).

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The developer, also known as NTE Mobility Partners (or NTEMP), is currently developing the $2.5 billion North Tarrant Express project, which includes expansion of Loop 820 and Texas 121/183 in Northeast Tarrant County.

If the agreement is finalized, NTE Mobility Partners will add I-35W to the North Tarrant Express work. The new arrangement will be titled NTE Mobility Partners Segments 3 LLC (NTEMP3).

The new work would include rebuilding existing lanes and adding two managed toll lanes in each direction of I-35W from Interstate 30 near downtown Fort Worth to the U.S. 287 split south of Alliance Airport.

The public meeting Thursday is "a very important step" in trying to get the I-35W improvements designed and under construction by mid-2013, transportation department spokesman Tony Hartzel said. After hearing from the public, the transportation department will then finalize the agreement and submit it to the Legislative Budget Board and attorney general's office.

The transportation department annually produces a report on Texas's "100 Most Congested Roadways," and this year's edition concluded that the I-35W stretch in north Fort Worth was the worst in the state - causing motorists to collectively waste more than 2 million hours.

The improvements to I-35W proposed in the draft agreement would cut that delay by more than a third, officials said.

"Texans have better things to do than to sit in traffic, and that's why we're proud to partner with the private sector to speed up a critical transportation project," Phil Wilson, transportation department executive director, said in a statement.

The developer would build and maintain the portion of the road from I-30 to Loop 820 until 2061 - and keep tolls generated on the managed toll lanes during those years. The state transportation department would build the portion of the road from north of Loop 820 to U.S. 287 at an estimated cost of $234 million, but then turn over that portion of the road to the developer, too.

Funding for the work comes from several pots. The North Central Texas Council of Governments has committed $89.5 million, as well as a possible additional $40.5 million for project contingencies, according to the state transportation department.

The U.S. Transportation Department has invited the developer to apply for a federal loan of up to $537 million under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA). The developer would then chip in $273 million in private activity bonds and $446 million in equity.

The agreement would also cover maintenance costs.

If the final agreement is reached by early 2013, the construction could begin by mid-2013 and be substantially completed by mid-2018.

“We have been working together with the state for the past three years designing and building the first phase of the North Tarrant Express project, and look forward to getting this next segment along I-35W in Fort Worth underway,” Nicolas Rubio, president of Cintra US, said in a statement released by the state transportation department.  “This is one of the most traffic congested areas in the United States, and we are proud to further serve the cities, region and state through our involvement in this public-private partnership as we all strive toward better mobility and a greater quality of life.”

Five years after I-35W collapse, bridges still crumbling

Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse that killed 13 people and injured 145 in Minnesota. With that in mind, I thought I'd repost a story I did back in January revealing poor conditions on 29 Fort Worth area bridges. Despite all the attention drawn to the nation's crumbling infrastructure after the Aug. 1, 2007 tragedy up north, many bridges that are in even worse shape than the I-35W crossing are still being neglected. Here's that story. If you have time, please also click on the link to the video I shot of an actual bridge inspection in Fort Worth.

@gdickson

Life's no beach on Beach Street in Fort Worth - but someday it'll be a legit alternative to I-35W

North Beach Street is a sea of brake lights, especially around Loop 820, where construction of the $2.5 billion North Tarrant Express project has the road even more congested than usual.

'America's Highways from Hell' - Loop 820 ranks No. 5 on the list (Enjoy your summer, commuters)

Fort Worth-area commuters who spend time on Northeast Tarrant County roads are going through hell right now, figuratively speaking. The latest proof comes from The Daily Beast, which included a three-mile stretch of Northeast Loop 820 between Grapevine Highway and Denton Highway on its list of "America's Highways From Hell."

Keller Old Town railroad car scrapped for parts during Memorial Day weekend - merchants who wanted it restored cry foul

Updated at 2:40 p.m. with comments from the Keller mayor:

"It's a shame to destroy a vintage car." -- Keller Mayor Pat McGrail, who toured the scene Tuesday (photo above)

A handful of Old Town Keller merchants is livid that a vintage passenger railroad car the group had hoped to restore was instead partly scrapped for salvage parts during the long Memorial Day weekend. This afternoon the group is standing guard over the old rail car, saying they're willing to go to jail to stop any further scrapping of the car, and are seeking a court injunction.

"We have been railroaded in Keller," said Terry Thomas, who owns Memories and Treasures Antique Mall in Keller. "Over the weekend, somebody came out and decided to start cutting it up."

But Edward Kirkwood, a Keller insurance agent and president of the Old Town Keller Merchants Association, said the decision to scrap the rail car was reached by a majority vote during a meeting in May. A majority of members, he said, believed restoring the car wasn't a wise use of funds.

"It's obvious this car has already been scrapped," Kirkwood said. "It's an eyesore. It's a hazard."

A contractor was hired to remove metal and other parts from the car, Kirkwood said in a phone interview. The work was done over the holiday weekend simply because that's when the contractor could do it, he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, advocates of restoring the car showed pictures of the car's condition before someone entered it over the weekend and began removing parts. They said ceiling fan motors had been taken, metal chunks had been removed -- apparently with industrial tools -- and duct work had been ripped out.

The group posted flyers on the rail car windows warning others not to enter the car, and saying they would seek a cease and desist order to prevent further salvaging.

The vintage rail car, which was believed to be in operation until the 1930s, was bought and moved to the city's historical center last year year using proceeds from five years worth of Crawfish Krawl events in Keller, Thomas said. The total cost was about $18,000.

However, Kirkwood said, other merchants want no further crawfish event funds used on the project.

But the leadership of the merchants association is even now in question. Thomas and association secretary Pat Fisher said Kirkwood was removed as president during an emergency meeting Monday night. They said vice president Mike Lloyd had been voted in as new president. But on Tuesday Kirkwood maintained he was still president, saying only he could call such a meeting.

The city authorized the merchants association to display the rail car on city-owned land along the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, just a block west of Main Street - also known as U.S. 377 or Denton Highway. That part of Keller has become a popular evening and weekend destination, with restaurants, bars and other retailers creating a bit of a parking shortage. Some members of the merchants association have talked about the need for additional parking near the railroad tracks.

But the city also has supported promoting Keller's railroad history, and gone along with the merchant association's plans to create a train-watching area along the line. The city owns a diesel locomotive and two other rail cars that are displayed on the same spur as the scrapped rail car.

On Tuesday afternoon, Keller Mayor Pat McGrail toured the scrapped rail car and shook his head.

"It's a shame to destroy a vintage car," McGrail said. "We can't allow the city to be in the middle of this. But if nothing else, if this car can't be restored here, it needs to be sold and relocated, not destroyed."

@gdickson