Fun opening for Chisholm Trail Parkway
Several community events are planned to celebrate the opening of Chisholm Trail Parkway.
On Saturday, residents are invited to ride their bicycles, run or walk on the toll road before it opens to traffic.
A half-marathon will begin at Farm Road 1902 in Johnson County and end at Edwards Ranch Road in Fort Worth. Participants will be bused from the staging area to the starting line. The route includes open ranch land as well as an I-20 overpass and a trek through the Clearfork development on the Trinity River north bank.
A 5k race and 1-mile kids fun run will also be held.
Bike rides of 12, 33 and 48 miles will begin and end at Edwards Ranch Road.
For registration fees — the proceeds will be donated to charities — and other information, visit ctprunride.org.
Sources: North Texas Tollway Authority; city of Fort Worth; Fort Worth Chamber.
Getting a TollTag
TollTags are stickers placed on a car windshield so that tolls can be deducted automatically as a driver travels on Chisholm Trail Parkway, or other North Texas toll roads.
Vehicles that use toll roads without a TollTag will have their license plates photographed and the registered owner will be sent a bill. Motorists who use this method, known as ZipCash, will be charged toll rates 50 percent higher than those with TollTags.
TollTags require a small up-front deposit, usually $40. Most account holders use a credit card to automatically replenish their TollTag account whenever the balance dips below $10.
To apply for a TollTag, visit NTTA.org or call 972-818-6882.
Source: North Texas Tollway Authority
Fifty-two years after it was first envisioned, Chisholm Trail Parkway is finally set to open, on Mother’s Day.
Weather permitting, the May 11 opening of the 28-mile toll road connecting downtown Fort Worth to Cleburne is a landmark moment in the region’s transportation history.The toll road is seen as a gateway for future commercial and residential development in southwest Fort Worth, as well as northern Johnson County cities such as Joshua and Cleburne. The area southwest of Fort Worth’s century-old, urbanized neighborhoods is still largely prairie, and it’s among the few large pockets of undeveloped land relatively close to the center of the Metroplex.In other words, it’s a part of town that — once the road is open and access is improved — seems destined to blossom.“I always felt like we would get there eventually, but it’s been a long trek, no doubt about it,” said North Texas Tollway Authority chairman Kenneth Barr, former Fort Worth mayor. “I think people are going to be very pleased with the way it looks. When people weigh the value of their time, they’ll find using the road is a viable option.”The cost of traveling on the toll road will vary depending on the distance. The maximum cost for using the entire road will be $4.91 for vehicles with a TollTag on the windshield, or $7.37 for those without one.Not all ramps openThe main lanes are scheduled to open, but access to the toll road will still be limited in some areas, including Interstate 30 near downtown Fort Worth, because of ongoing construction in the corridor.Flyover ramps connecting I-30 to Chisholm Trail Parkway west of Summit Avenue likely won’t be finished for several months, possibly until October, officials said. Motorists in downtown Fort Worth will be asked to use Montgomery Street or University Drive to get on the new road.Direct connections to Interstate 20 in southwest Fort Worth probably won’t be ready until late summer or early fall, officials said.Also, tollway authority officials said there’s a remote chance the planned May 11 debut could be delayed by a day or two by rainy weather during the week. Several activities including a bicycle ride and half-marathon are scheduled for May 10 as part of the opening.For now, Chisholm Trail Parkway looks a bit barren. But more than 5,000 trees will be planted to ensure the road has a parkway feel. Planting will take place in the fall, a spokesman said, to ensure the trees aren’t killed by the summer heat before their roots settle.“As we come online, construction will continue and you will start to see a prettier road emerge,” said tollway authority spokesman Michael Rey. “The city of Fort Worth wanted this designed with a parkway feel, so you’re going to see some ornamental touches — the fencing, the design. There will be a public artwork element that will come online later. ... The most important thing is getting the roadway opened, and getting people moving.”For supporters the importance of the opening can’t be overstated. Many Fort Worth political and business leaders spent large portions of their careers trying to get the road built and several prominent supporters died without ever seeing a shovel turned on the project.By opening the road in May, the North Texas Tollway Authority hopes to fulfill a promise made to the region in fall 2011 to get the road open as soon as possible, even if not all of it is ready. The agency also typically has a commitment with its bond holders to open new roads to traffic as soon as is practical and feasible, to ensure no time is wasted repaying the debt.The Plano-based tollway authority took the lead in building the $1.6 billion project, although Fort Worth, the Texas Department of Transportation and the federal government chipped in to cover the cost of construction and right-of-way. It took more than a decade of tense, complicated negotiations among those agencies as well as the Union Pacific Railroad — which owns a massive rail yard along the route in west Fort Worth — to get a construction contract inked.Trailblazing approachAlthough the tollway authority is more commonly associated with projects in the Dallas area, Tarrant County is no stranger to toll roads.In 1957, the region’s first toll road, the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike, opened between Dallas, Arlington and Fort Worth. The road was converted to a freeway in 1977 after its bonds were paid off and today is part of Interstate 30.Fort Worth also owns part of International Parkway, a toll road that serves as the spine for car travel at Dallas Fort Worth Airport. Fort Worth co-owns the airport with Dallas.But Chisholm Trail Parkway represents a trailblazing new approach for Fort Worth. For one thing, it’s an all-electronic toll road, meaning there are no toll booths with attendants to make change.Motorists can sign up for a TollTag account and place a sticker on their windshield, so charges can be deducted automatically as they use the road. Or, they can simply allow the tollway authority to photograph their license plate and mail the registered car owner a bill, a method called ZipCash.But TollTags are recommended for anyone who plans to use the road regularly, because those who pay with ZipCash pay a 50 percent higher toll rate.Also, unlike other toll roads, speed won’t be the main attraction on parts of Chisholm Trail Parkway. The portion of the road from I-30 to Texas 183 (also known as Southwest Boulevard) is engineered for a 50 mph speed limit, with winding lanes and other geographic features that ensure the legal posted limit will never go higher. The lower speed was a concession made to Fort Worth officials. In years of negotiations with historical neighborhoods such as Mistletoe Heights, the city sought to minimize the noise and other negative impacts from the road.Further south of the populated areas, the speed limit will increase to 60 mph from Texas 183 to Altamesa Boulevard, and to 70 mph from Altamesa Boulevard to U.S. 67 in Cleburne.Rich historyPlanning documents as far back as 1962 show a proposed road cutting through the southwest quadrant of Tarrant County. It was initially called Southwest Freeway, followed by Southwest Parkway. In the early 2000s, Johnson County officials named their portion of the road Chisholm Trail Parkway, as a tribute to the historic cattle trails in the area connecting Texas ranchers to Oklahoma, Kansas and beyond. Eventually, Tarrant County officials and state legislators agreed to call the entire corridor Chisholm Trail Parkway.As for why the road took 50 years to build — it simply fell through the cracks.As Fort Worth grew outward over the decades, other road projects took priority. For example, while DFW Airport was under construction in the 1960s, state officials realized they needed better roads to not only get travelers to the terminals, but also thousands of workers to their airport-related jobs. So money was spent on highways such as Texas 26 and Texas 121/183 in Northeast Tarrant County, a review of highway expenditures from that era shows.Desperate for a funding source, Fort Worth officials agreed in the 1990s to begin exploring the feasibility of a toll road project in southwest Fort Worth.The prospect of tolls was a bitter pill for many residents to swallow and many neighborhood groups such as Mistletoe Heights, Berkeley Place, Park Palisades and Hulen Bend Estates loudly raised concerns about the impacts of cutting a new, wide road through areas that had been settled for more than a century.But a handful of city political and business leaders stuck with the proposal. They negotiated, compromised and tugged on the coattails of decision-makers, refusing to quit until they either died or the toll road got built. Many officials who plan to attend the festivities Saturday credit former Fort Worth Councilman Chuck Silcox, who died in 2008. The project was his priority throughout his 17 years in office.Also among the fiercest supporters was Donna Parker, 69, who along with the late Freese and Nichols executive Joe Paul Jones and the late, well-known car dealer Charlie Hillard worked tirelessly on the project as members of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce’s transportation committee during three of those five decades.“We were like the Three Musketeers. Now I’m the only one alive,” said Parker, director of client relations and development at Jacobs consulting firm.Parker is looking forward to the public events that will take place before the road opens, including a chamber breakfast on the roadway May 9 and a half-marathon and bicycle run May 10. But she also looks forward to a moment of solitude, driving on Chisholm Trail Parkway alone, after the bunting is removed and it’s just a road.“I can’t wait to drive it in my personal car,” she said, “and see how it links us together.”
Gordon Dickson, 817-390-7796 Twitter: @gdickson
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