What is the government doing to ease congestion on Tarrant County’s most clogged roads?

Dallas-Fort Worth commuters waste away hundreds of thousands of hours trudging through traffic on Tarrant County roads. What are local leaders and the Texas Department of Transportation doing about it?

Interstate 35W/U.S. 287, from Northeast 28th Street to Interstate 30

About 171,000 vehicles funneled through the 3.4-mile strand of I-35W spanning from downtown Fort Worth to Diamond Hill in 2022, according to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. The stretch boasts the unpleasant achievement of being the state’s ninth most congested road. Researchers estimate that its grueling standstills cost commuters $67 million and 2.47 million hours of their lives annually.

State and federal officials drew up plans to unclog the artery from downtown to the county line in the mid-2000s. Construction crews wrapped up the first expansion of “Segment 3A” — the 6.5-mile slice from downtown to Loop 820 — in 2018, adding two new toll roads for those with little time and a little more money to spend. Precise and consistent tallies for the project’s price tag are hard to come by, but one TxDOT summary states the revamp cost $1.4 billion.

Congestion eased slightly between 2021 and 2023, yet traffic woes have hardly dissipated. TxDOT ultimately plans to double the number of mainlanes (from two to four) and throw up more toll routes at an estimated expense of $1.6 billion. TxDOT didn’t specify how long it expects the undertaking to take when asked by the Star-Telegram.

Loop 820, from Interstate 35W to Baker Boulevard/Texas 183

The sliver of I-35W most jammed road tangles into Tarrant County’s second most packed stretch of freeway. Commuters throw away an estimated $83.2 million and around 470,000 hours per mile each year crawling through traffic along this 6.72-mile section of the Loop. It’s Texas’ 18th most congested road, rising five places between 2022 and 2023. Peak traffic adds roughly 16 minutes to a voyage.

Workers broke ground on a $414 million rebuild of Northeast Loop 820 from I-35W to the 183/121 split last year. TxDOT hopes adding an express lane and a regular mainlane will appease frustrated drivers streaming between DFW Airport and North Richland Hills, Watauga, and other Tarrant County growth hubs.

Workers stitched four toll lanes — two in each direction — onto the freeway in 2014. Commuters unable or unwilling to pay for access still spend thousands of hours idling in traffic each year.

Interstate 35W, from Texas 170 to U.S. 287

Tarrant County’s northern-most section of I-35W is also its third most congested roadway. This roughly 5-mile corridor slicing through Alliance has fallen 11 places in the state’s congestion rankings in recent years, but delays have steadily worsened since 2021. Still the state’s 35th most clogged road, the stretch delays commuters for a cumulative 299,000 hours per mile every year, at a cost of $43.5 million. Hitting the road at rush hour can add up to 22 minutes to a trip.

Spanish infrastructure firm Cintra finished two tollways from from Eagle Parkway 6.7 miles south to the intersection of U.S. 287 and I-35W in 2023. Congestion complaints persist .

Texas 121, from Texas 26 to Loop 820

This 12.6-mile stretch twisting through Northeast Tarrant County has surged 26 spots in the state’s road congestion rankings since 2021. Commuters waste 257,000 hours per mile and an estimated $84.3 million idling through the road; peak traffic adds 12 minutes to a trip.

The road links the northwestern edge of DFW to Hurst and North Richland Hills. TxDOT plans to expand and revamp it; the agency expects construction to start sometime in the next four years, but it’s unsure when it will end.

Interstate 30, from East Loop 820 to Texas 360

Now Texas’ 60th most clogged road (after ranking 93rd three years ago), this 8.78-mile section of I-30 delays commuters for 188,226 hours per mile at the expense of $43.3 million.

This section of the (in)famous east-west freeway connects the easternmost neighborhoods of Fort Worth to the core of Arlington and its regional landmarks — Globe Life Field, AT&T Stadium, and Six Flags among them.

TxDOT in late 2014 floated early plans to widen and reorganize I-30 from Cooper Street to the President George Bush Turnpike. The agency’s project tracker indicates officials have spent close to $7 million to date designing new toll roads and specialized freight lanes from I-35W until Cooper St.