NorthGate Constructor crews working on the DFW Connector had planned to open South Main Street in Grapevine to full traffic access on April 28, but a recent discovery of contaminated soil in the area has delayed its opening to full capacity for another five months.

Marc Rothwell, NorthGate Constructors' intersection superintendent, told a group of business owners at this week's Business Owners' Task Force meeting that crews in February discovered soil contamination as they were installing waterlines under the roadway at the corner of the Chevron gas station from McDonald's restaurant to Wells Fargo Bank.

The soil contamination was a result of a diesel tank spill in the 1980s, which was mitigated, Rothwell said. NorthGate Constructors work crews hauled off the contaminated soil to a Class 1 landfill and moved the alignment of the waterlines to a different location, Rothwell said.

"Because of that, we've had to redesign all the waterlines to keep from having contamination in the water system," he said. "That cost us about a month and a half."

Crews are planning to finish moving utilities in the next two months, Rothwell said.

"Traffic is still going to be backed up for a while," he said. "It is not going to impact anything as far as the water system. That's what we are doing; we are making sure that nothing is going to be impacted."

Rothwell anticipates that South Main Street will be opened to its full capacity by September of this year.

NorthGate Constructors is a partnership between Zachry Construction Corporation and Kiewit Texas Construction. They are in charge of the DFW Connector project that will makeover Hwy. 114, Hwy. 121 and adjacent roadways north of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Officials with NorthGate Constructors said the project is about 66 percent completed.