More delays likely for Panther Island bridges, but businesses optimistic about progress
When construction on White Settlement Road began, Angelo’s Barbecue, a favorite lunch spot of downtown workers, saw a double-digit drop in business as delays mounted, owner Jason George said.
Once scheduled to open in 2017, the bridge was delayed by design issues as the completion date was pushed back two years. Then project officials last year said the bridge would be finished by late summer 2020, with bridges for North Main Street and Henderson Road following in the spring of 2021.
Now, the White Settlement bridge might not open until December, according to information state officials provided a White Settlement business group.
Despite the longer delay, George says he is more optimistic now than he has been in years. This summer he saw more progress on the site outside his restaurant at 2533 White Settlement than in years past.
“When it’s all said and done, this will be great,” George said.
Officials with Texas Department of Transportation, which manages the $69 million bridge construction with the city of Fort Worth as the local partner, were expected to update the Trinity River Vision Authority Board on Wednesday, but that presentation was postponed.
Steve Metcalf, mechanic and owner of Dealer Alternative, the Honda and Acura shop at Carroll and White Settlement, said businesses were told in late December the nearby bridge would be done by the end of this year. Metcalf leads the White Settlement Road Development Task Force, which advocates for businesses and has been holding bimonthly meetings with TxDOT officials about the bridge work.
Businesses were also told Houston contractor Texas Sterling had increased the number of workers at each bridge site, he said.
Doug Rademaker, a city project manger involved in the bridge construction, told Trinity River Vision Authority board members Wednesday the contractor would begin working seven days a week.
Piers are complete and construction is being done on the portion of the span that will support the road deck for all three bridges, Rademaker said, with White Settlement Road the furthest along. At Henderson, crews are working on a frame necessary to build that support structure, and, at North Main, vertical support columns are under construction.
“In a nutshell, lots of stuff has happened,” Rademaker said.
Rademaker cautioned that project completion dates may be fluid. A TxDOT spokesman didn’t confirm the completion dates and said the agency was working to finalize the schedule.
Bridge delays were first caused by the unique V-shape pier design, which engineers needed to test. Each of the 20 V-piers must be constructed separately, making the construction time longer than a typical bridge.
In May, a lawyer for Sterling said work could be further delayed because of a funding dispute.
Mark Mazzanti, a former Army Corps of Engineers director who is the the local project coordinator, said work on the Henderson Street bridge must be done by early summer 2021 in order to not interfere with the the rest of the Trinity River project.
The bridges are one part of the $1.17 billion Panther Island project and have been fully funded. The city provided $25 million while the state and federal governments funded the rest.
Panther Island, known as the Central City Project by the Army Corps of Engineers, is billed as flood mitigation and will open the door to substantial development around downtown Fort Worth. Once the bridges are complete, the Corps is expected to cut a 1.5-mile bypass channel between the two forks of the Trinity River. While the channel is meant to alleviate flood risk from the river, it will also form an 800-acre island primed for riverfront development.
Bridges have not been the only hurdle slowing the project, first conceived in the early 2000s.
The bypass channel requires significant federal funding. Though Congress authorized up to $526 million in 2016, the project has received just $68 million since the mid-2000s.
Mazzanti said locals could know as early as February if the project will receive money through the 2020 federal appropriations bill approved in December.
George, the Angelo’s owner, said he thinks bimonthly meetings have helped hold the contractor and state officials accountable for finishing the project quickly. Often held at his restaurant, the meetings give business owners a chance to talk with TxDOT officials and get direct project updates.
“I think they’re being forced to be more informative,” George said.
Since bridge construction started in 2014, George said Angelo’s business has fallen about 30%. That’s meant some cutbacks. When staff left, George often didn’t rehire, saying he runs the restaurant on a “skeleton crew.”
His restaurant is positioned at the base of the White Settlement bridge and relied on lunchtime traffic from downtown and folks driving by after work. Unlike the projects on North Main and Henderson, both also state highways, the White Settlement construction requires a detour down West Seventh and Carroll streets, missing Angelo’s.
“We’re now a destination location,” he said.
