Honkin' Mad

What the new Arlington MAX buses will look like - colorful!

Here's an image of what the new MAX buses in Arlington will look like:

What do you think of the color scheme? Well, for one, I see LOTS of colors in there. ... It looks like UT-Arlington's blue and orange is represented, as well as DART's famous yellow and the red and blue of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority. Also, is there some Dallas Cowboys blue and Texas Rangers red and blue mixed in there?

What a colorful partnership it is ... this two-year pilot project to bring public transportation to Arlington. ;-)

@gdickson

P.S.: Hat tip to the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (aka the T) for sending along this artist rendering.

T lowers fares for college students, gives final nod to Arlington bus service

College students are now eligible for reduced bus and train fares. The Fort Worth Transportation Authority board on Monday changed its reduced fare policy to include students of any university or trade school in Tarrant County. The T board also gave final approval to the two-year pilot project that will bring MAX bus service to Arlington beginning Aug. 19. MAX stands for Metropolitan ArlingtonXpress. How's that for an acronym?

@gdickson

p.s. Here's an image from MAX's website, www.ridethemax.com.

 

Pay up! Toll violators get grace period before NTTA blocks vehicle registrations

Toll violators have one last chance to pay up before the North Texas Tollway Authority takes advantage of a new state law allowing the agency to block car owners’ annual vehicle registrations.

More than 78,000 people own vehicles that have at least 100 unpaid tolls - and they owe a combined $53.3 million, agency spokesman Michael Rey said.

The tollway authority on Monday announced that a one-time grace period would begin immediately, and last until Sept. 13. During that time, car owners who agree to sign up for a TollTag and pay their outstanding balance can do so without fees. Those who agree to a payment plan will be assessed a 10 percent administrative fee.

“This is a great opportunity for folks,” Rey said. “They’ll never get a lower rate.”

Those who refuse to pay will owe all tolls and accumulated late fees. Rey said. They also will be subject to the new state law passed during the 2013 regular session that allows the tollway authority to take any of several actions against habitual violators. Those actions can include: blocking vehicle registration, collection through a civil court and an order of prohibition banning their vehicle from tollways, which could lead to vehicle impoundment and a $500 fine.

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

Good news in Grapevine - Texas 114/121 work is 90% done

@gdickson

GRAPEVINE Nearly four years of orange-barrel headaches soon will be coming to an end in Grapevine’s Texas 114/121 corridor. Work on the DFW Connector project, a $1 billion-plus makeover of Grapevine-area highways, is nine to 10 months ahead of schedule, a spokeswoman said. Most of the detours and narrow lanes could be gone by August or September.

“We are 90 percent complete, and we are looking at substantial completion in the August or September time frame,” said Alyssa Tenorio, spokeswoman for NorthGate Constructors, the main contractor.

In the latest sign of progress, crews moved the westbound Texas 114 lanes into their permanent traffic pattern during the past weekend. With this change, both directions of Texas 114 between Texan Trail and Freeport Parkway are now in their permanent place. That was one of several traffic alterations that took place over the weekend. Workers also opened the westbound Texas 114 off-ramp to Main Street in its permanent place. Also, just north of DFW Airport, the southbound Texas 121 bridge to westbound Texas 114 is now open at full capacity.

The project began in October 2009, after more than a decade of planning. The long-delayed effort got a boost from the federal Recovery Act program. An award of $250 million for the DFW Connector was the single largest expenditure of stimulus money for a transportation project in the United States.

Although the project will be substantially complete by late summer, motorists may still see workers doing touch-up work along the eight-mile Texas 114/121 corridor. Also, some work along Farm Road 2499 near the Grapevine-Flower Mound border will continue. That work near Grapevine Mills was initially cut from the project because of budget constraints but was later added back in, after the Texas Department of Transportation found an additional $32 million to pay for it.

The DFW Connector is one of the most complicated projects in North Texas highway history. It involves untangling a web of gridlock caused by the confluence of at least seven state highways - including heavily-traveled Texas 114 and Texas 121 - into a narrow space between Lake Grapevine and DFW Airport. Before the state transportation department came up with the DFW Connector name, the area was widely known by frustrated drivers and traffic broadcasters as the “Grapevine funnel.”

At its widest spot near the DFW Airport entrance, the rebuilt Texas 114/121 is 23 lanes wide. That includes new toll-free main lanes, frontage roads and ramps - and two toll lanes in each direction.

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

West 7th bridge closing Friday night for up to 150 days

@gdickson

FORT WORTH The contractor rebuilding the West Seventh Street bridge can earn a bonus of nearly $1 million for getting the structure reopened to traffic in fewer than 150 days.

And beginning Friday night, thousands of inconvenienced Fort Worth drivers likely will be rooting for Sundt Construction Inc. to earn all that cash.

Beginning at 8 p.m. Friday, the bridge connecting Fort Worth's popular West Side with downtown will be closed, so crews can begin demolishing the century-old structure.

Sundt Construction of San Antonio has pledged to get the bridge open within 150 days - which should put the completion deadline at 8 p.m. Nov. 4. But companyofficials have plenty of incentive to get the work done early.

For every day Sundt can deliver the project ahead of that schedule, the company will be paid a $33,000 bonus, according to Sundt's contract with the Texas Department of Transportation. The bonus offer is good for up to 30 days, meaning Sundt can make up to $990,000, transportation department spokesman Val Lopez said.

"I think everyone is rooting for them to do a good job, and get it done as quickly as possible," Lopez said.

Traffic will be detoured to West Lancaster Avenue during the closure (see map below). White Settlement Road is also an alternate route.

With the closure of the bridge, the project is entering its most intensive phase. State and city officials met frequently with area business owners to map out a plan that minimized the amount of time traffic would be disrupted during the project. Ultimately, they chose to close the bridge all at once, on the condition that the work could be substantially completed after the city's annual Mayfest celebration but before the start of the bustling Christmas shopping season.

So if all goes well, trick-or-treaters will be able to walk across the new bridge on Halloween night. Boo!

For more information on the West Seventh Street bridge project, click here.

p.s. If you're curious about the photo at bottom, check out this story. It seems a young man in Massachusetts dressed up as a bridge for Halloween and got an up close tour of a new bridge there. Perhaps this story will inspire TxDot to throw a community Halloween party on the bridge and give candy to kids ... assuming Sundt gets the job done by then.

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Trucks forced out of left lane on more Texas highways

Thank you to all the readers who submitted comments last week about Texas' plan to expand its left lane truck restrictions. Your comments helped give the story meaning and made it more readable. I fit as many of the comments into the story as I could, but if your comment wasn't used, please accept my apology. I just ran out of space. I promise I did take the time to read all the comments. Here is link to the story, which ran in Monday's Star-Telegram.

Bill to pay for Cotton Belt commuter rail project dies in Legislature

A bill to help pay for a proposed 62-mile Cotton Belt commuter rail line from southwest Fort Worth to Plano didn't get out of committee in the Texas Legislature.

Should trucks be kept out of the left lane?

@gdickson

Trucks are already prohibited from using the left lane on I-30, I-20 and I-45 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. State officials want to dramatically expand the number of highways with a left-lane truck ban beginning in the fall.

What do you think of this restriction?

I'm writing a story about this topic, and would like to include your input. To have your say, please post a comment to this blog item, or send an email to gdickson@star-telegram.com

Private investment in toll roads - a potential multi-TRILLION dollar industry #fundingtransport

@gdickson

I have returned from a fantastic week covering the International Transport Forum in Leipzig, Germany. Here's a story that ran in the Wednesday's edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the 54 nations approving a declaration in support of private investment in roads. Among the speakers was a chief executive at MacQuarie Group Ltd., one of the world's top private transportation investment firms - and he said the universe of pension, equity and other funds available for investment in infrastructure for pretty much any nation that wants to take advantage of it is in the neighborhood of $27 TRILLION.

That's so-o-o- much money, one has to wonder if it's enough to literally solve the world's congestion problems ... or at least put a serious dent in them. But do we want that much private investment in roads? Do we want any more investment than we already have?

I found the trip to Germany to be a fantastic learning experience, and over the next several weeks I hope to write some more stories that explore these funding issues.

In the mean time, please consider these initial stories a conversation starter, and send me a note to gdickson@star-telegram.com if you'd like to ask any questions or suggest a story idea.

@gdickson

p.s. To pay for the trip to Germany, I was one of 35 journalists from around the globe (3 in the U.S) awarded a grant from the International Transport Forum's media travel programme.

Arlington bus service approved by DART - sort of

@gdickson

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit board has approved a deal to begin a two-year pilot bus service in Arlington starting in August - but DART also included some unusual language in the deal that could cause delays or even kill the project.