Before the Panther Island project is considered complete, a segment of University Drive must be raised 10 to 15 feet, or about the height of a full-grown giraffe.
The project will force the city of Fort Worth to close all six lanes of University Drive for an entire year between Jacksboro Highway and Rockwood Park Drive, likely beginning in mid-2026. Raising the road will lift it out of the 100-year floodplain, creating more storage for floodwaters and protecting areas prone to flooding downstream.
The closure will primarily impact several businesses, Fort Worth ISD, the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, Dickies Arena and surrounding neighborhoods. The closure will also divert traffic to surrounding major thoroughfares.
At peak hours, traffic on Jacksboro Highway and University Drive could double or even triple, according to a traffic study presented to the Fort Worth City Council on Feb. 20.
“This is going to be extremely disruptive to a lot of businesses and residents, but you’ve done a great job thus far,” said council member Macy Hill, who represents northwest Fort Worth.
Council members are expected to approve or deny the request to close University Drive at their Feb. 27 meeting.
The design and construction for raising University Drive will be completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is the primary entity leading the design and construction of the Central City Flood Control Project. The project is often referred to as “Panther Island,” because a bypass channel rerouting part of the Trinity River will result in a man-made island between downtown Fort Worth and the Northside community.
Construction on University Drive must be completed before the Corps of Engineers can activate the north and south bypass channels. The Corps expects the project to be completed by 2032, but construction delays related to municipal utility relocations threaten that anticipated end date.
To keep the project on track, leaders of the Tarrant Regional Water District and city of Fort Worth are also planning to shift $77 million from “elective” projects to critical infrastructure such as relocating utility lines and funding construction contracts.
Assuming council members approve the closure, the Corps of Engineers expects to award the design contract for University Drive 60 to 90 days after the council vote Feb. 27, Clay Church, a spokesman for the Corps of Engineers, said in a statement. Then, the designers will decide between building a solid retaining wall or adding a sloped embankment.
Tim Yochum, vice president of Rockwood Go-Karts & Mini Golf, said he first heard about the possible closure of University Drive a decade ago. He said the city has promised to create alternative ways for customers to reach his business and the neighboring La Pulga market.
“There’s no doubt it’s going to hurt. I mean, right now you drive on University in either direction and you can whimsically pull into our parking lot,” Yochum said. “Those days will be over as of 2026.”
Fully closing University Drive will minimize construction time by up to one year and make the work area safer, Church said. After University Drive is raised, it will limit access to Yochum’s business.
Regardless of what the final design looks like, the city will consider options to create a new route to access businesses adjacent to University Drive during and after construction. During construction, the city will consider creating a temporary connector through Rockwood Park, between Rockwood Lane and Rockwood Park Drive, to access businesses on the west side of University Drive.
“Of course you don’t like it, but there’s nothing you can do about it,” Yochum said. “There’s no legal standing or recourse on any of it. We just try to make the best of it and go into negotiations and make sure that your new roads and on- and off-ramps are as good as they can be.”
City, water district propose moving $77M in funds
With construction costs rising due to inflation, representatives from the city of Fort Worth and Tarrant Regional Water District say they will need more funds to pay for crucial elements of the Central City Flood Control Project than they originally estimated in 2017.
Kate Beck, who is coordinating Central City activity for the Tarrant Regional Water District, proposed shifting $77 million from “elective” projects to critical infrastructure projects that are necessary to keep the Corps on track to start bypass channel construction in 2025.
“Those market escalations are happening everywhere,” Beck told the Trinity River Vision Authority board Feb. 22. “It’s not unique to our project, but because of that reality, we’ve been working together to identify the budget for elective components of the program that could be utilized for more critical elements of the program.”
The proposal will move about $30 million in contingency funds, $30 million allocated for expanding utility lines to accommodate development on Panther Island, $10 million for a connection between Marine Creek and the Stockyards and $3 million for program management costs. Another $3 million will come from unused funds for land acquisition near the TxDOT bridges over Panther Island.
About $31 million of those reallocated funds will be used to meet the federal government’s requirement that local governments provide cash matching for construction and permit projects. An additional $43 million will go toward the city of Fort Worth’s bill for relocating stormwater, sewer and water utilities out of the path of the north bypass channel, while the last $3 million will be spent on remaining environmental remediation and demolition costs.
City and water district staff are discussing alternative sources to pay for the projects that lost funding, Beck said.
“This doesn’t change the overall budget, but these changes will be reflected in the financial reports that you see,” Beck said.
Beck and water district general counsel Stephen Tatum said there was no requirement for the Trinity River Vision Authority board to approve or recommend the budget shift. But several board members, including G.K. Maenius and James Hill, said the board of directors should be involved before the revised budget moves forward.
“We’re talking about possibly reducing (the) contingency budget, so it would be best practice to have an approval mechanism,” Hill said.
The budget shift will likely come back to the board during its next meeting, currently scheduled for April 25.
In the meantime, assistant city manager Dana Burghdoff said, contractors are beginning to make progress on utility relocations after facing delays late last year. In order to keep up with the Corps’ construction schedule, Fort Worth must relocate 14 stormwater, sewer and water utilities out of the north bypass channel by summer 2024 and the south bypass channel by fall 2024.
That timeline will be delayed by at least a few months, because contractors faced challenges submitting proper documentation to the Corps, which must grant permission to companies before they begin moving utilities. After resolving the documentation issues, construction crews began work on Grand Avenue on Feb. 19, Burghdoff said.
City staff have also met with Fort Worth & Western Railroad officials to amend their license agreement so contractors can work underneath railroad crossings. Lack of communication with the railroad also caused project delays, Burghdoff said.
Beyond construction projects, economic development prospects on Panther Island are set to take center stage next month. Consultant HR&A is expected to release its real estate and economic development road map in early March.
Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org.
Rachel Behrndt is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at rachel.behrndt@fortworthreport.org or via X.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.