DFW Connector Project Reaches Major Milestone
GRAPEVINE (CBSDFW.COM) - For the past two years, North Texas drivers have had to battle against traffic, detours and road construction because of the DFW Connector Project. But on Monday, there will be a celebration. No, the project is not complete – that is not happening until 2014 – but crews have reached the halfway mark.
The eight-mile, $1 billion project is rebuilding portions of four highways, two interchanges and five bridges, all north of DFW International Airport.
When road construction is complete, there will be managed toll lanes along Highway 114, a continuous frontage road alongside Highway 114 between William D. Tate Avenue and Northwest Highway, and plenty of other changes to help improve traffic flow in the area, where highway congestion has been a problem for many years.
City officials in Grapevine said that drivers should start seeing improvements really soon, 26 months after the project first broke ground. "It means a lot less congestion and better traffic movement," said Grapevine's transportation director, Jerry Hodge. "In this coming year, you're going to see more and more improvements to the highway system."
One of the major milestones takes place on Monday. The Main Street bridge in Grapevine will be completed. As construction was taking place, only a couple of lanes were allowed to squeeze across the span. But when the bridge opens up – still not until the spring – the bridge will be much wider. "The Main Street bridge is the heart of Grapevine," Hodge said on Monday. "It is a major improvement for this area, because this area's been congested for a long time."
Hodge even offered a glimmer of additional hope for North Texas drivers, teasing that the construction project could be completed before the 2014 estimation.
