During the first week of the new year, crews with NorthGate Constructors completed a traffic lane pattern switch to put drivers on new northbound auxiliary lanes, NorthGate Public Information Assistant Maria Woodrow said.
The lanes take vehicles coming from I-635 toward SH 121 and put them on SH 121 farther along the road. This is a major milestone for the project, Woodrow said.
“That traffic is not going on northbound [SH] 121 until later on, so it really is going to be a huge weight taken off of the main lanes,” she said.
When a milestone is accomplished in the project, it means that crews are finished working on this portion of the project, Woodrow said.
The DFW Connector is a $370 million Texas Department of Transportation project that includes rebuilding and widening SH 121 north of the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport to accommodate new interchanges at I-635 and FM 2499. The Bass Pro Drive bridge in Grapevine will also be widened to six lanes.
Upcoming construction
The whole project is currently 54% complete, Woodrow said, and the first three months of the new year will propel the project even further.
In mid-January crews will begin demolishing the former northbound FM 2499 bridge. When this happens, vehicles will be taken off the freeway completely and moved to the frontage roads. Southbound traffic will be detoured to Stars and Stripes Boulevard. Northbound traffic will need to exit at Bass Pro.
At the end of February crews will continue demolition of the eastbound I-635 bridge, which began in 2019. Demolition is scheduled to take one weekend, but it might be two, Woodrow said. During that time northbound traffic will be detoured to frontage roads.
