FORT WORTH (1080 KRLD) - The Texas Transportation Commission will vote next week on funding for an expansion of Interstate 35W in Far North Fort Worth, from Highway 287 to Eagle Parkway, near Alliance Airport.
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price talked about the project during her "State of the City" address this week.
"The last leg where it bottlenecks down now will be widened out and you can keep going up 35," she said. "That's a big win."
The proposal before the Texas Transportation Commission would provide funding to rebuild eight miles of I-35W. The entire project would cost $762 million, but TxDot would only use $18 million in state funds.
"We're quite confident it's going to happen. We just don't know quite when," says Rusty Fuller, the president of the North Fort Worth Alliance, a group of neighborhood associations. "It's desperately needed."
The rest of the money would come from federal funds and private investment. The project would add two tolled "TEXPress" lanes in each direction, continuing a stretch of tolled managed lanes that stretches from Downtown Fort Worth.
The previous expansion of I-35W cost $1.6 billion, adding tolled lanes from Downtown Fort Worth to Highway 287.
The Texas Transportation Commission will vote on funding for the expansion of I-35W farther north on February 28.