These Tarrant County traffic nightmares are targeted in $400 million bond proposal

The mess starts near Parkview Elementary on Cromwell-Marine Creek Road in Fort Worth.

A caravan of lights shine through the dusk as drivers tap their brakes, inching their vehicles toward the roundabout at Marine Creek Parkway.

Brandy DiCureia, who has lived in a nearby neighborhood for three years, described traffic congestion in the area as a normal occurrence, especially when school is in session. She experiences the congestion when she takes her son to school at International Leadership of Texas off Old Decatur Road.

Even without the traffic, navigating the road takes a careful eye. The road, which borders the 1,000-acre Marine Creek Ranch master-planned community, goes from two-lane to four-lane, through stop lights and stop signs.

Some drivers take their chances turning into the touch-and-go traffic in front of the elementary school and library, where a two-way stop sign for those turning onto Cromwell-Marine Creek is the only traffic sign.

The road, and others like it across the county, could be fixed if voters pass a $400 million transportation bond on Nov. 2. The bond isn’t expected to increase taxes.

The county plans to spend $200 million on a 50% match for roadwork projects in the cities. But that won’t come close to addressing the road projects across Tarrant County: It received 196 requests totaling nearly $763 million when it asked cities for proposals for the funding matches this past spring.

A committee of 16 set up by the county commissioners ranked the requests based on safety enhancement, connectivity, strategic significance, congestion mitigation and air quality.

The group identified 33 projects before hitting the $200 million cap.

North Fort Worth Alliance President Rusty Fuller thinks the issue speaks to a larger narrative across the county: The roads aren’t able to keep up with the area’s rapid development. Fort Worth had the third largest increase in people among the nation’s largest cities last year.

“There’s too many needs and there’s not enough money,” Fuller said.

The rest of the projects still stand a chance through $75 million in discretionary funds being distributed to commissioners for transportation projects in their precincts. Another $125 million is set aside for multijurisdictional projects.

The projects won’t necessarily be completed in the order they’re ranked, county administrator G.K. Maenius said, and the first project that’ll be taken on is subject to change.

Of the 33 projects approved, nearly 40% are in the northern part of the county. Fuller said his group, while focusing on quality of life issues in far north Fort Worth, gets involved in transportation-related issues as well.

The alliance has been trying to get a rebuild of Wagley Robertson Road, in a part of the city where the roads are frequently clogged because of nearby train traffic, he said.

“It’s sorely needed,” Fuller said. “We need the money. The city of Fort Worth, the county needs to invest. We’re getting a lot of commercial and industrial improvements, and we need to support those commercial and industrial and residential developments so that we have jobs.”

The top projects passed by the commissioners were all widenings and reconstructions: Avondale Haslet Road in Forth Worth ($19.3 million), Stone Road in Burleson (2.53 million), Bonds Ranch and Wagley Robertson in Fort Worth ($12.4 million), Cromwell Marine Creek Road in Fort Worth ($13.9 million) and Debbie Lane in Arlington ($10.5 million).

Maenius said each of the county’s 24 municipalities were approved for at least one project.

“I think there’s some excitement from not only the bigger cities, but from some of the smaller cities because they know that they’re going to be able to do some road work that they wanted to do but simply couldn’t afford,” he said.

Though the 33 projects have been decided, the list is still subject to change, Maenius said. The roads could take anywhere from two to five years to build.

Early voting begins Monday.

This story was originally published October 15, 2021 at 5:15 AM.