Editor’s note: Early voting for Fort Worth’s May 2 election opens April 22. In the lead-up, the Report is breaking down each bond proposition and charter amendment on the ballot. Find the other articles here as they are published.
Just over half a billion dollars would be devoted to improving and repairing Fort Worth roads if voters approve it on May 2.
The $511.5 million proposition is one of six making up the city’s proposed $845 million bond package. Residents will vote for or against each proposition separately during the May 2 election.
The money targeted for transportation improvements would include new and improved traffic lights, sidewalks, railroad crossings and bridges.
The bulk of the funds — about $328.2 million — would go to street construction and rehabilitation, including 12 major improvement projects. Those would include addressing needs along Bonds Ranch Road in far north Fort Worth and East Berry Street on the south side of the city.
For a full list of proposed transportation projects, see the city’s bond program booklet.
What is a municipal bond?
Bond elections allow voters to decide whether governmental entities, in this case the city of Fort Worth, can borrow millions to billions of dollars from investors in exchange for interest payments and the eventual repayment of the original debt amount. The borrowed money must be spent on projects specified in bond propositions, such as street improvements or public safety needs.
If voters approve the proposition, the bond dollars will be earmarked for the projects laid out in the city’s 2026 bond booklet, public information officer Lara Ingram wrote in an email.
However, City Council members can abandon or modify a project if they deem that conditions have materially changed and that the project as originally proposed is unwise, unnecessary or has other funding, Ingram said.
Project timelines are dependent on multiple factors, including design, bidding and construction, senior management analyst Rachel Bristow noted in an email. Complex projects, for example, can take years.
Several transportation projects are noted as “design and land acquisition only.” That means the city will need another bond package down the road to complete construction, Bristow said.
She said the proposed bond projects resulted from “significant resident input combined with city staff’s data-driven approach to prioritizing projects.”
Last fall, the city hosted 11 meetings to solicit public feedback on its proposed bond package.
A combined 260 people showed up, and 177 more participated in online bond planning efforts, representing 0.06% of Fort Worth’s 689,988 residents of voting age, according to a Jan. 13 city presentation.
Streets and mobility emerged as a top priority of City Council members early in bond planning.
Staff prioritized needed street repairs by dividing lane miles into categories, according to numbers presented last June:
Need reconstruction: About 1,880 lane miles, or 23% of the city’s total, are beyond the point of maintenance and need total reconstruction.
Need maintenance: About 3,550 lane miles need general maintenance, which is paid for from a dedicated fund called PayGo, or Pay As You Go.
Need preservation: About 3,200 lane miles need preservation to proactively avoid heavy maintenance.
Using those categories, city staff then prioritized specific streets based on pavement conditions and input from council members.
Of the 10 council districts, 9 and 11 had the streets with most needs, scoring a pavement condition index score of less than 50 out of 100. District 9 includes downtown, the West 7th entertainment district and other parts of central Fort Worth. District 11 includes a strip of east and southeast Fort Worth.
The 2026 bond package has about 102 proposed street projects. About 71% of those are in districts that are mostly in the city’s urban core, which is defined as within the 820 Loop.
The bond proposition comes as Fort Worth faces an annual $59 million shortfall to maintain streets.
In October, council members approved spending $615,900 to study the creation of a street maintenance fee that would be charged to residents’ utility bills. The fee would help maintain Fort Worth’s 8,600 lane miles of streets as construction costs rise and the City Council consistently votes to lower the tax rate.
Last year, the city spent $38 million on maintenance, which covered about 80 lane miles, according to the city’s Street Maintenance Fee webpage. Current funding only repairs about 1% of Fort Worth streets a year, while it would take an estimated $98 million annually to keep the streets from getting worse, according to the site.
Estimates presented to the City Council in June suggested the fee might cost a household about $30 per year. Staff have since emphasized that this projection is outdated and that no more accurate numbers are being discussed.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.orgor @shawlings601.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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