Honkin' Mad

Southwest Parkway, delayed again?

Is the long-awaited construction of an 8-mile toll road from downtown to southwest Fort Worth delayed again?

At the Texas Transportation Summit in Irving, state Sen. Kim Brimer,  R-Fort Worth, reported that a handshake deal reached two weeks ago with Union Pacific Railroad to build the road over their Davidson Yard in west Fort Worth had been rejected by a rogue UP board member. Brimer was furious, and called for the partners building the project, the city of Fort Worth and North Texas Tollway Authority -- to go ahead and start the project in spite of UP's lack of cooperation.

"I think we ought to just build it over them, and let them stop us," Brimer said during a break in the summit.

But Jorge Figueredo, the tollway authority's executive director, said the deal hasn't been delayed. He said it doesn't require UP board action, and all that remains is for lawyers on both sides to iron out minor details.

Hmmm ...

The handshake deal reportedly calls for the city, tollway authority and UP to split about $150 million in improvements to the Davidson Yard to ensure rail traffic isn't interrupted during construction of the toll road. Word is that the parties would split the costs pretty much evenly ...

TxDot under a microscope

Many question the Texas Department of Transportation's competency. READ MORE

NTTA's 121 deal not complete

The North Texas Tollway Authority is still trying to complete its financing of Texas 121 toll road in Denton/Collin. The success of that deal is crucial to future toll projects, including Texas 161 in Grand Prairie and Southwest Parkway in Fort Worth.READ MORE HERE

NTTA spokeswoman Sherita Coffelt wanted to clarify that the agency's decision to sell only $2.3 billion to 2.4 billion in bonds for 121 and other needs was a calculation on their part because of bond market conditions ... and despite what some critics are saying it's not true that NTTA tried but failed to sell the whole $5.2 bb.

"We only went to sale on $2.3 billion of the bonds," she wrote in an e-mail. "We did not come up short. We actually did better. We had orders totaling $16 billion, but did not have enough product to meet the demand."

Where will Southwest Parkway be built?

To see a detailed map showing where Southwest Parkway/121T/Chisholm Trail will be built, look HERE.