City of Fort Worth
The North Tarrant Express (NTE), a $2.1 billion project that rebuilt and expanded 13 miles of one of the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s most congested highways, celebrated the one-year anniversary of its opening on Oct. 4.
Since the project’s completion nine months ahead of its original schedule, NTE has seen significant increases in a variety of categories. In one year, the corridor is moving 23 percent more traffic than before construction began, and as of Aug. 31, 2.1 million different vehicles have used the new NTE TEXpress-managed lanes.
For drivers who choose not to use the project-s managed lanes, the general-purpose lanes alone are moving 5 percent more traffic than pre-construction levels, with an 80 percent reduction in congestion on general-purpose lanes, largely thanks to the improved design of the roadway.
“This project has been a game-changer not only for North Texas, but the entire state,” said Robert Hinkle, director of corporate affairs for the North Tarrant Express. “Aside from the obvious improvements in moving people through the corridor, it has spurred tremendous economic growth for the cities within the corridor.”
“On a national scale, we have shown the rest of the country that Texas is ahead of the curve in terms of finding solutions to the lack of transportation funding facing the entire country,” Hinkle said.
The public-private partnership aspect of this project allowed for the private sector to assume the bulk of the risk, Hinkle said.
Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, described the partnership as “the best of what the public sector can do and the best of what the private sector can do.”
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