What’s that huge pipe on University Drive in Fort Worth? It won’t be there much longer.
Commuters on University Drive to the north of Interstate 30 may have gotten used to seeing that huge black pipe taking up lanes of traffic, but it won’t be there much longer.
The pipe has been there for weeks now along the stretch of University between Trinity Park and the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.
It’s part of a plan by the city to improve the sewage services in the area, including ending occasional overflow in the area around South University Drive and East Rosedale Street, said Mary Gugliuzza, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth water department.
While largely just a curiosity to most, the closure of a northbound lane on University Drive has caused traffic backups, especially with events in the West Seventh district and at venues like Dickies Arena.
The plan is to have the pipe installed sometime Monday, Gugliuzza said. The force pipe, which uses pressure rather than gravity to move sewage, will eventually connect with a lift station that will help more effectively get the stuff from sinks, toilets and drains to a wastewater treatment plant.
When the time comes to install the pipe, Gugliuzza said, the contractors working the project will feed it into a hole and through a tunnel. The rollers on which the pipe has been sitting since it appeared seemingly overnight will help make that process easier.
In the end, the pipe will stretch three miles from the Clear Fork lift station near the intersection of Rogers Road and Riverfront Drive to the end at Fifth street, just north of Forest Park Drive.
This story was originally published October 18, 2023 at 4:29 PM.