A Panther Island bridge in downtown Fort Worth may be done sooner than expected
Fort Worth drivers sick of the detour on North Main between downtown and the Stockyards may feel some relief by this time next year.
Work on the North Main Street bridge, one of three needed for the Panther Island project, may be done by the middle of 2021, Doug Rademaker, a senior project manager for the city, told the project’s board of directors Wednesday. Rademaker wouldn’t put a firm end date on the bridge construction, but said based on the work already finished it appears to be significantly ahead of the its projected December 2021 completion date.
The bridge for Henderson Street will likely be done shortly after, he said.
A bridge for White Settlement Road, the only road without a detour and the cause of much anxiety for businesses in the area, is still on track to be done by the end of this year.
Traffic may be allowed on the bridges before they’re completely finished.
Once scheduled to open in 2017, the bridges were delayed by design issues, and officials have pushed the completion date back several times.
The three bridges are needed for a $1.17 billion project that would create Panther Island by cutting a bypass between the two forks of the Trinity River as a means to control river flooding.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would dig the channel, but the project has not received significant federal funding in at least three years. Annually the local Corps office requests between $35 million and $40 million. This year, the federal government provided $1.5 million for a feasibility study.
Mark Mazzanti, the former Army Corps executive hired last year as a consultant for the local effort, last month advised the board not to accept the federal money for the study. He argued the Corps has already authorized the project and such a study would delay Panther Island by possibly another three years. Another $1.5 million would also be needed from the Tarrant Regional Water District to pay for the $3 million study, and the water district has maintained such a study unnecessary.
On Wednesday, the board directed Mazzanti to place that recommendation in writing so the board can formally approve it.
