The Tarrant County Commissioners Court voted Sept. 28 to reallocate $2 million in funds from the county’s 2006 transportation bond from one roads project within Grapevine to another.

After a 3-1 vote, that $2 million will now be available for the city of Grapevine to use in collaboration with DFW International Airport to extend Kimball Avenue and Ernest Dean Parkway from SH 26 south through Mustang Drive to the southbound SH 121 frontage road.

The court originally had allocated $1.1 million to Grapevine’s Bass Pro Drive widening project as part of the 2006 bond program. That amount later became $3 million when an additional $1.9 million was reallocated to it in 2011 from a project on SH 26, according to Tarrant County documents.

That money ended up not being needed, though, as the Bass Pro Drive reconstruction and widening was ultimately performed by the Texas Department of Transportation. That work came as part of the work on the SH 121/I-635 interchange through the DFW Connector project.

In June, Grapevine Mayor William D. Tate wrote a letter to the court asking that the city be allowed to reallocate $2 million of the $3 million to the planned extensions, which are located near the DFW Connector as well as the airport.


Grapevine will match the reallocated $2 million, as was part of the original bond program parameters, and the combined $4 million will be partnered with funds from a collaboration with the city and the airport to design and construct the roads. Documents submitted to the court suggest the project’s total cost will be around $11.3 million.

The vote came after some clarification among the five-member court with Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks voting against and Commissioner J.D. Johnson abstaining.

By court policy from the 2006 bond program, typically such excess funds that were not needed would be split evenly among the court’s five members, going into their respective discretionary pots for transportation projects. Instead, the remaining $1 million from the original $3 million will be split evenly among the court.

“It’s a project we’ve been kind of working on trying to figure out how to do for well over a year,” said Commissioner Gary Fickes, in whose Precinct 3 the project is located. “This seems to be the best way to do this.”