A major North Tarrant Express project has finished four months ahead of schedule, adding capacity along Tarrant County’s busiest highway corridor. 

The 10-mile expansion began in late 2023 and was expected to finish in January 2027. TEXpress Highways, also referred to as TEXpress LBJ/NTE/35W, hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony Friday, Sept. 25, and attributed the faster turnaround to its design-build approach, which allows for multiple construction projects to occur simultaneously both day and night. 

“Once a project gets started, the schedule of activities takes on a life of its own,” said Kurt Watkins, managing director for Arena Comms, who represents TEXpress Highways. “It’s impacted by things like how long an activity takes, occasional challenges, available resources and weather sometimes dictates progress.” 

The $414 million North Tarrant Express Capacity Improvement project runs through six municipalities including Fort Worth, Haltom City, North Richland Hills, Hurst, Bedford and Euless. The project added an additional general purpose lane in each direction along Loop 820 between Riverside Drive in Fort Worth and State Highway 26 in North Richland Hills. One new TEXpress managed lane in each direction along Airport Freeway, between Bedford Euless Road in North Richland Hills and Industrial Boulevard in Euless, was also added.

Future North Tarrant Express projects will be initiated by the Texas Department of Transportation, said Watkins. 

The project was fully financed through toll revenue collected by TEXpress Highways, meaning no taxpayer or TxDOT funds were used, with the expansion being part of the original comprehensive development agreement between the two transportation entities. 

The average daily traffic when the North Tarrant Express opened in 2014 was 140,000 vehicles per day, and the current traffic level is 200,000. Pablo Ferrando, CEO of TEXpress Highways, said the capacity improvement project was necessary because of Tarrant County’s exponential growth. 

“As more businesses and people continue to move to our region, traffic volumes have increased and triggered the need for expansion,” Ferrando said.