Fort Worth’s Panther Island is shovel ready, but there’s lots of work to do before construction gets underway.

Representatives from the city, county, water district, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers met Thursday to update and plan for what comes next on the project. Most partners are reviving old plans after years of waiting for federal money, but some work could start as early as this summer.

That funding materialized in January when the Corps announced it was allocating $403 million for design and construction of all remaining elements of the project including the 1.5 mile channel connecting sections of the Trinity River north of downtown Fort Worth.

The channel is part of the Central City Flood Control project aimed at bolstering Fort Worth’s aging levee system first installed in 1960.

The most immediate work will be to relocate utilities and pipelines in the way of the Corps’ construction.

Col. Jonathan Stover, district commander of the Corps’ Fort Worth Division, said his agency is planning to award a construction contract for a section of flood plain near Gateway Park sometime this fall.

That doesn’t mean construction will begin this year, cautioned Corps spokesperson Clay Church.

“There’s a number of factors that have to fall into place,” Church said.

The Tarrant Regional Water District board approved allocating $3.2 million Tuesday to move a natural gas pipeline in the way of the planned flood plain. The money will compensate pipeline owner Energy Transfer Fuel to move the line this summer when they usually put it out of commission due to low demand.

Development of the 1.5-mile bypass channel connecting sections of the Trinity River north of downtown is still in the planning phase, Stover said.

The Corps is still pulling together its project development team, and plans to include the city, county and water district in the hiring process.

Including local partners isn’t typical for the Corps’ hiring process, but Stover explained he wanted to make sure the city, county and water district approve of whoever the Corps hires.

Stover said in January he expects the Corps will take two years to both hire a contractor and finish the final design before beginning construction on the bypass channel.

The city of Fort Worth still has to relocate utilities in the channel and update its form-based zoning codes around both Panther Island and Gateway Park. City Manager David Cooke said in January that the city can start moving utilities in the north side of the channel, but will wait for more concrete plans from the Corps before starting work on the south.

Assistant City Manager Dana Burghdoff said Thursday that the city will revisit its comprehensive plan for the Gateway Park area early next year. These plans serve as an guideline for the type of development the city would like to see in a given area.

In the meantime, the city is having a public naming contest for the three Panther Island bridges completed by the Texas Department of Transportation late last year. The city has accepted 1,600 submissions so far and plans to choose the names by public vote after a selection committee whittle them down to five for each bridge.

This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 3:36 PM.

Harrison Mantas

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

817-390-7040

Harrison Mantas has covered Fort Worth city government, agencies and people since September 2021. He likes to live tweet city hall meetings, and help his fellow Fort Worthians figure out what’s going on.