Wet winter slows down North Texas road projects

Mother Nature doesn’t brake for road work.

Unusually wet weather has helped green up North Texas and bring some relief to the region’s parched reservoirs. But it has also caused serious delays in highway and toll projects.

Among them is Interstate 35W, where the planned reopening of the southbound Northside Drive exit has been postponed from February to June.

And on Interstate 30 west of downtown Fort Worth, improvements related to the recent opening of the Chisholm Trail Parkway toll road are now expected to continue through May. That work was supposed to be done by February, too.

“Weather over the last month — post-Stock Show and spring break/zoo traffic — has not been helpful to say the least,” said Michael Rey, spokesman for the North Texas Tollway Authority, the agency responsible for building the I-30 connection to Chisholm Trail Parkway.

Fort Worth officials are eager to have the project completed. I-30 has been a mess for years, as lanes have been moved and shoulders blocked off by concrete barriers while ramps to and from Chisholm Trail Parkway were installed.

The city is asking tollway authority officials to provide an update.

“We have the same questions. We have asked NTTA to come over to brief the City Council at our April 7 meeting,” said Bryan Beck, Fort Worth regional transportation coordinator.

Perhaps the most stressful aspect of the I-30 work is that the concrete barriers have taken away the shoulders, making traffic on three lanes in each direction a tight squeeze. Those barriers are now scheduled to be removed by May, said Elizabeth Mow, the tollway authority’s assistant executive director of infrastructure.

Weather isn’t the only culprit. The authority has also agreed not to make major roadway changes while high-profile events such as the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo and spring break at the Fort Worth Zoo are drawing visitors to the area.

Crews will again have to work around a few events this spring, including Mayfest and the Crowne Plaza Invitational golf tournament at Colonial Country Club, Mow said.

“We try not to blame our partners. We are happy to work with them for these events, which are important to the local community,” she said. “We just reschedule our work.”

Even after traffic is moved onto the reconfigured main lanes of I-30 and the construction barriers are removed, crews will still be at work on landscaping and other touch-ups well into summer, she said.

On I-35W, the southbound exit to Northside Drive has been closed since September, leaving motorists few options for getting off the freeway between 28th Street and downtown.

Mother Nature doesn’t get all the blame on I-35W, either.

“Weather has played a large part in the delay, but there are also several utility relocations that are necessary to be completed prior to the ramp being reopened,” said Tommy Williamson, spokesman for the North Tarrant Express 35W project.

Also on I-35W, the ramp to Berner Street — about a quarter-mile north of 28th Street — is closed through April 30. Traffic is being directed to the 28th Street on-ramp.

Motorists can visit North Tarrant Express online for the latest information on lane switches, alternate routes and other changes. The I-35W reconstruction is a $1.4 billion project that includes modernized toll-free main lanes, frontage roads, ramps and two new toll lanes in each direction.

I-35W is considered a vital north-south pathway through Dallas-Fort Worth, yet it consistently ranks among the most-congested roads in Texas.

The firm that widened Loop 820 and Texas 121/183 in Northeast Tarrant County — the project known as the North Tarrant Express — has expanded its work in the Metroplex by managing the improvements to I-35W.

Chisholm Trail Parkway is a 28-mile toll road from I-30 near downtown Fort Worth to U.S. 67 in Cleburne. The project was a partnership of the tollway authority, Fort Worth and the Texas Department of Transportation.

This story was originally published March 27, 2015 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Wet winter slows down North Texas road projects."