Drivers on Beach Street in Fort Worth suffering through construction

By Gordon Dickson

gdickson@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH -- Life is anything but a beach for motorists on North Beach Street.

"People sit in traffic for 10 minutes without moving," said Nicole Mazzolla, who lives in far north Fort Worth and drives on North Beach every day to her Inkpit tattoo shop near Northeast Loop 820. "It's a major headache. I just don't get it."

On a map, the Beach corridor appears to be an attractive alternative route for commuters traveling north and south between populated areas of Northeast Tarrant County and Fort Worth's downtown and east side.

But in reality, the 15-mile corridor is often a treacherous sea of brake lights, especially near 820, where the road is caught up in the North Tarrant Express project.

Regional planners say the Beach corridor offers a bright future for motorists and over the next several years will become a prized option for drivers seeking to avoid Interstate 35W, which runs parallel to Beach about a mile west.

Eventually, they say, North Beach will be an uninterrupted, mostly six-lane thoroughfare from Texas 170 near Cabela's to Interstate 30, where motorists can easily access downtown Fort Worth or Arlington. South of I-30, the road stretches several more miles to Mitchell Boulevard near Fort Worth's Polytechnic High School, where motorists can easily access U.S. 287 heading to Mansfield and Kennedale.

But along with all that long-term promise comes much short-term pain.

Drivers complain about constant travel delays, especially in Northeast Tarrant. Business owners say they've lost half their customers because of traffic congestion, which was compounded this year when the North Tarrant Express developer reduced North Beach to one lane in each direction at 820 for utility work.

Two weeks ago, traffic was restored to two lanes each way, and the 10- to 20-minute delays are reduced to four or five minutes. But for many shop owners, the customers haven't returned.

"People get used to going in a new direction, and it's easier for them," said Anita Soeung, owner of Anita's Donut. On a recent late morning, about an hour before Soeung's closing time, more than 200 doughnuts, apple fritters and other treats remained unsold inside her glass case.

"I'm at the point where I'm thinking of leaving this place," she said. "I'm basically working for free."

Highway exit closing

Other business owners were infuriated to learn that the North Tarrant Express developer plans to permanently close the eastbound 820 exit to North Beach in about two months. They said they were under the impression that the exit would close temporarily but reopen by 2015 or sooner.

"I understand they have to do this project, but do they have to shut down everything at the same time?" asked Pete Jones, owner of Penguin Promo screen-printing shop. Jones said he recently moved from the Park Glen area to an apartment across North Beach from his store, partly because he got tired of the grinding commute home each evening -- three miles that regularly took 30 minutes or more.

Officials at NTE Mobility Partners, the main developer of the North Tarrant Express, said the exit's permanent closure may surprise many residents but has been planned since an agreement to build the project was signed with the Texas Transportation Department in 2009.

"We're changing the way people have traveled this road for 40 years," NTE Mobility spokesman Robert Hinkle said. "It's big. Change is sometimes difficult."

He said he had not heard much backlash about the closing from business owners or elected officials in area cities. But he also acknowledged that the impending closure hadn't been publicized and might not be widely known.

Once the North Tarrant Express is complete, the easiest way for motorists on eastbound 820 to reach North Beach will be to drive past it. North Tarrant Express officials will recommend that motorists continue east to the next exit, Haltom Road, make a U-turn and double back -- about a 3-mile circular detour.

A future phase of 820 expansion will include a new eastbound exit ramp to North Beach, but that work is likely many years away. It won't be part of the first phase of 820 improvements scheduled for completion by June 2015, said Lara Kohl, spokeswoman for Bluebonnet Contractors, the construction company overseeing the work.

Whenever the new exit is built, it will become part of the makeover of the 35W/820 interchange about a mile to the west, she said.

Better days ahead

While access to North Beach from 820 becomes a lingering issue, Fort Worth officials say motorists on North Beach itself will soon get relief.

"As far as Northeast Tarrant County, Beach Street has been our No. 1 priority -- Beach Street going north-south and Golden Triangle Boulevard going east-west," said Jim Walker, the city's assistant director of transportation and public works.

For example, Walker said, an S-curve extension of North Beach between Golden Triangle and Alta Vista Road/Timberland Boulevard is under construction near the far north Fort Worth-Keller border and is scheduled for completion this summer.

Other planned work:

A mile to the south, engineering work has begun on an expansion of a two-lane stretch of North Beach between Alta Vista Road and Shiver Road. Expansion to four lanes could be under construction in about a year, he said. That project is being paid for out of the city's 2008 bond program, he said.

On the north end of the corridor, Fort Worth officials are working with property owners to speed up extension of North Beach from north of Timberland to 170, where frontage roads are already in place and the North Texas Tollway Authority plans a toll road. The extension of North Beach to 170 could be placed on a bond program for voter approval, possibly as soon as 2014, Walker said.

A proposed expansion of a four-lane stretch of North Beach to six lanes from just north of 820 to Fossil Creek Boulevard also may be placed on the 2014 bond program, he said.

How much traffic?

Motorists today may struggle to imagine a time when traffic flows freely on North Beach, but city and regional officials say that by 2035 they expect less traffic on the road.

That, of course, assumes that money is available for scheduled improvements to many surrounding corridors such as 35W, 820, U.S. 377 and North Riverside Drive.

"North Beach is not being constructed as an alternative route for I-35W. We're not synchronizing it for trucks. It's really designed for the people of Northeast Tarrant County and north Fort Worth to get around Fort Worth," Walker said. "Through traffic traveling on I-35W routinely wouldn't want to use Beach Street."

Nearly 36,000 vehicles per day travel North Beach just north of 820, according to the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

The region's traffic models show that by 2035, about 22,400 vehicles per day will pass through that area, said Amanda Wilson, a council of governments spokeswoman.

With the improvements planned for North Beach, that traffic could likely move freely without long lines at any intersection.

It's a day many advocates for improvements to north-south roads such as North Beach hope they live long enough to see.

"We need north-south routes such as Beach Street and Highway 377 to handle north-south traffic more efficiently," said Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, who has pushed for transportation investment in the area for many years. "The problem in Fort Worth is we have one major north-south route, and that's I-35W, and we need three or four more."

Gordon Dickson, 817-390-7796

Twitter: @gdickson

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