More than $7.1 billion in highway improvement projects are planned in Tarrant County over the next decade, but officials are celebrating the end of construction for one notable project.
The $414 million North Tarrant Express project for Airport Freeway and northeast Interstate 820, launched in 2023, is now complete with a 10-mile road expansion, months ahead of its projected early 2027 completion thanks to overnight construction work. The project was paid for with toll revenue.
The project, a public-private partnership, added one free, general-purpose lane in each direction on Loop 820 between Riverside Drive in Fort Worth and State Highway 26 in North Richland Hills as well as one TEXpress tolled lane in each direction along Airport Freeway between Bedford Euless Road in North Richland Hills and FM 157/Industrial Boulevard in Euless.
Frontage roads, bridges and ramps along the corridor were substantially rebuilt, officials said.
Pablo Ferrando, CEO of TEXpress Highways, said highway expansion was needed to accommodate North Texas growth.
“As more and more businesses and people have moved to this region — which remains one of the most economically robust in the nation — traffic volumes have increased in both the general-purpose main lanes and TEXpress managed lanes, triggering the need for the expansion,” he said.
Daily traffic along the corridor — which connects downtown Fort Worth to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport — has increased by 25% since 2009, TEXpress officials said.
Michael Morris, director of transportation and staff director for the Arlington-based Regional Transportation Council, said the project was the result of public-private partnerships that have helped Texas expand highways with revenue from tolled lanes.
More than 4 million people are expected to move to North Texas by 2050 as the region is projected to become the third-largest metropolitan area in the nation with a total population of about 12 million.
“Delivering a project quickly that is paid for by the private sector is a win-win for everyone,” Morris said.
Officials said the completed corridor will move traffic swiftly, even with the increase in traffic volume. The average speed is 45 miles per hour in general-purpose lanes while motorists can reach 70 miles per hour in the TEXpress tolled lanes.
David Salazar, Fort Worth district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation, said the short-term pain of construction is outweighed by the benefits of the completed corridor since “keeping North Texas moving has sustained, positive economic implications that we should not overlook.”
A TEXpress Highways study shows that the project’s total investment is $2.1 billion. User benefits, including the corridor’s travel time and reliability, are estimated to be $3.1 billion while benefits from safety and emissions are estimated at $2.7 billion.
Hundreds of road and highway projects are planned for Tarrant County, TxDOT records show.
About $3.2 billion is allocated for 93 projects that are under construction or beginning soon.
For instance, work continues on the Southeast Connector, a $2.3 billion project to rebuild and widen 16 miles of Interstates 20 and 820. I-20 will be expanded to 10 main lanes from I-820 to Martin Luther King Jr. Highway/U.S. Highway 287 while I-820 will have eight main lanes from I-20 to Rosedale Street/Spur 303. The interchanges of those highways are also being reconstructed.
Another 134 projects, totaling $2.3 billion, are expected to begin within four years.
Twelve other projects, totaling $1.6 billion, are scheduled to start within five to 10 years, according to the agency’s project tracker.
Eric E. Garcia is senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org/2026/09/29/improvements-are-underway-for-tarrant-highways-heres-how-one-projects-completion-helps/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://fortworthreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=797937&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://fortworthreport.org/2026/09/29/improvements-are-underway-for-tarrant-highways-heres-how-one-projects-completion-helps/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/fortworthreport.org/p.js”></script>