Private company proposes tearing down and rebuilding part of I-35W

Star-Telegram ^ | Thursday, May 20, 2010 | GORDON DICKSON

[Willie Green]

A toll road developer has offered to tear down and rebuild 10 miles of Interstate 35W from downtown to far north Fort Worth to relieve one of Tarrant County's biggest bottlenecks with a combination of toll and nontoll lanes.

The proposal by NTE Mobility Partners, submitted this week to the Texas Department of Transportation, would allow motorists to pay their way out of congestion on toll lanes that would extend from Interstate 30 near downtown to North Tarrant Parkway, south of Alliance Airport.

For motorists who can't or don't want to pay tolls, the project would include reconstruction of existing nontoll lanes, continuous frontage roads, improvements to access ramps and an end to those pesky left-lane exits at the I-35W/Loop 820 interchange. Federal and state law generally requires existing nontoll interstate lanes to remain free, although toll lanes can be added.

Months of negotiations are likely needed before it becomes clear whether state officials will approve the project. But the developer has said that, if its offer is accepted, the $2.7 billion project could be open to traffic by June 30, 2017.

"With the new proposed configuration, the project will result in over 1.5 million hours saved annually by moving drivers from congested roads to free-flowing lanes," according to an executive summary of the report released Thursday afternoon.

Obstacles

But while the I-35W plan may be the best and perhaps only chance of fixing the interstate for at least the next 10 years -- state officials and lawmakers say they'll run out of gasoline-tax-supported funds to build any roads by 2012 -- the proposal promises to be controversial on many levels:

[Willie Green]

If tolls are to be collected to fund this reconstruction, then it should be collected by the local transit authority and not some private company. Then, the profits can be applied towards providing commuter rail service, instead of being shipped offshore to Spain.

[rahbert]

I am so glad to not have that commute anymore!

Between the speed traps south of Denton and the
clusterf&ck at Loop 820 one just cannot catch a break
on I35W!

[TLI]

http://corridornews.blogspot.com/2008/12/two-spanish-firms-cintras-nte-mobility.html

[Buckeye McFrog]

with a combination of toll and nontoll lanes

The non-toll lanes will be the gravel ones with random shards of broken glass and the occasional sinkhole...

[mikey_hates_everything]

Just make sure they fully upgrade the interchanges! It’s happening here on the Va. side of the beltway and we are going to be sorry over the end result. The backups from the construction is bad enough as it is and it will benefit no one but the private company.

[bgill]

Move to the country. Commuting by back roads is so much more pleasant.