Current Issues 

Trinity River Vision  

Quick Overview of the TRV Project

Credit to the FWST:

Trinity Uptown is an 1,800-acre flood-control and economic development project that stretches from a mostly industrial area on the city’s near north side to the green spaces in Gateway Park on the east side.

It includes construction of a bypass channel and a Town Lake just north of downtown to help control flooding, as well as restoration of damaged Trinity River ecosystems and expansion of Gateway Park amenities.

Typically, it takes much longer to get Washington headquarters to approve moving from design to construction, particularly on projects of this scale. But Trinity Uptown won approval in about three years.

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, was hailed as the "driving force" who has pushed the project through the byzantine approval process in Congress and within the corps. But she praised the corps’ leadership for its innovative approach.

Others on hand to sign the agreement were U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Mayor Mike Moncrief, City Councilwoman Kathleen Hicks and Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley.

The money

In 2004, Congress approved spending $220 million on the project. The Army Corps is authorized to spend $110 million, and it already has spent about $6.6 million on design.

The water district is providing $64 million, mostly for land acquisition. Fort Worth is providing $26.6 million and Tarrant County another $11 million. A tax increment financing district, or TIF, established by Fort Worth in 2003 is expected to pour in $115.9 million.

Multilayered plan

Last year, the Trinity River Vision Authority, the local agency overseeing construction of Trinity Uptown, agreed to pay the Freeze and Nichols engineering firm $1.7 million to develop a multilayered construction plan and a more accurate estimation of what the project will cost.

The authority received a draft report on the construction sequence at a meeting earlier this week, with the cost estimate portion expected to be completed within the next few months. The draft report has construction starting this year and being completed in 2020.

Major components

So far, Trinity Uptown is divided into nine construction components within the draft plan including relocation of private- and city-owned utilities, construction of the three main bridges, building of the 1 1/2 -mile bypass channel and a dam. There are 32 separate projects within Trinity Uptown.

Officials hope to purchase all of the land needed for the project by November 2012. Before a great deal of construction can take place, utilities such as water, sewage, gas and phone lines must be relocated.

The bridges

Here is the tentative time line for building the three bridges:

• Henderson Street Bridge is slated to be built first, with construction to begin in January 2011 and end in March 2013. It is the longest bridge at 367 feet.
• Main Street Bridge work would begin in December 2012 and be completed in December 2014. It is 351 feet long,
• White Settlement Bridge construction would start in December 2014 and finish in January 2017. It is 317 feet long.

Architect Bing Thom designed the three bridges with their curvilinear supports to act as signature structures for the project. To reduce the construction costs, each bridge will be built on dry ground and the dirt pulled away later for road and railway beds and water channels.

The channel

Under the draft timeline, the bypass channel slashing through the city’s near north side will be built in four zones.

• Zone 1: Underneath the Henderson Street Bridge, with construction occurring from March 2013 to May 2015.
• Zone 2: From North Main Street where it hits the west fork of the Trinity River toward the southwest and the Union Pacific Railroad trestle. Construction would run from March 2013 to April 2015.
• Zone 3: From the west side of North Main Street to the Trinity River, across the channel from the Tarrant Regional Water District headquarters. Work would begin in June 2014 and end in January 2017.
• Zone 4: Starting at the north side of White Settlement Bridge to near the Clear Fork of the Trinity River near the Pier One headquarters. Construction would run from July 2016 to July 2018.

Trinity River unplugged

Two Trinity River channel plugs would be removed from March 2016 to March 2017, allowing the river to flow through the northern portions of the new bypass channel for the first time. The remaining two plugs on the southern end of the bypass channel would be removed May 2017 and August 2018.

Gateway Park

Officials hope to start moving dirt in the Gateway Park and the Riverside Oxbow Ecosystem Restoration area this year, with actual construction starting in March 2010 and ending six years later.

But Brossard said his goal is to work on this part of the project in phases, allowing him to complete entire sections of the project before moving on to another one.

Town Lake

The town lake near what will be the Tarrant County College’s downtown campus will be among the last parts of the project to be done, with work beginning in January 2019 and ending in December 2020.

TRV Project Timeline- September-October 2008

September 5, 2008:

Trinity River Vision project to create urban waterfront in Fort Worth

The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, announced the signing of the Project Partnership Agreement (PPA) for the Modified Trinity River Central City project by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Mr. John Paul Woodley, Jr.

The PPA is a milestone for the project as it is the legal agreement between the Corps of Engineers and the Tarrant Regional Water District (non-federal sponsor) to proceed with construction activities.

The PPA specifies construction actions and overall project operation, maintenance, repair, replacement and rehabilitation. The PPA will address flood risk management and will lay the foundation for the remainder of the $576 million Trinity River Vision project, which also includes opportunities for ecosystem restoration, urban revitalization and recreation. The project has been determined by the Secretary to be technically sound and environmentally acceptable.

The work will eliminate the high levees that separate the Trinity River from downtown, create a new lake and expand nearby Gateway Park. In July, a motel on N. Henderson Street was the first structure demolished to make way for the Trinity River project. It is expected to take approximately a decade to complete.

September 18:

Trinity Uptown drawing national interest (FWST)

According to J.D. Granger, executive director of the TRV Authority, development opportunities in Trinity Uptown are popping up on the radars of nationally based developers, and some may be focusing on an important tract where Tarrant County College once planned a campus on the north side of the Trinity River.

Granger said in an interview that his office has received at least four serious inquiries in recent weeks, the Star-Telegram’s Sandra Baker reports. Granger declined to name the developers, but said they are "people who do big water projects" and developers who would bring to Fort Worth the "type of money we haven’t seen here."

Likewise, the Tarrant County College District, which controls about 47 acres in the project area, is getting calls from local and national developers interested in the land.

"It’s indicative of how valuable all that property is," said Louise Appleman, president of the TCC board of trustees. "It gives me hope that we can sell it and return our investment to the coffers."

Granger and James Toal of the Gideon Toal engineering firm, chief urban planner for Trinity Uptown, met this week with TCC trustees, who requested an update on Trinity Uptown’s progress. The trustees are mulling options for the land that was bought originally for its new downtown campus.

But TCC trustees instead spent $238 million this summer to buy RadioShack’s corporate campus. The property has been renamed the Trinity River Campus and, after some remodeling, will open for classes in fall 2009. RadioShack will lease some office space from TCC for the next couple of years.

The college district paid TXU $27 million for 29 acres on the north side of the Trinity River and has an option on an additional 18 acres. The college district also spent $13.5 million for property on the bluff, where it began construction on classroom buildings. So far, the college has spent more than $100 million on the campus.

The trustees will meet next week to possibly decide whether to hold or sell the buildings under construction. Several officials, including Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley and Tarrant County Administrator G.K. Maenius, have toured the construction site in recent weeks.

Toal told trustees that in the next couple of weeks, he will redraw the Trinity Uptown plans to remove the college campus. In its place, he said, he will add access roads to the riverfront and several pedestrian bridges, including near where TCC had planned to build a bridge to connect the south and north sides of the campus. The access roads would come from Northeast Fourth Street, north of the river.

The Town Lake will also likely be moved slightly and made smaller, not only to accommodate the loss of the campus but also the shifting of the bypass channel north of Fourth Street, he said. The bypass channel and the lake are part of the project’s flood-control measures.

Notes From Tom Struhs Presentation On Trinity Bluff - Bass Family Planning Grocery Market by Kevin. www.fortworthology.com

I was unable to attend the presentation developer Tom Struhs gave on the Trinity Bluff project at the TRV offices last night, but I’ve pieced together some notes from the presentation from various sources. Here’s some of the interesting stuff Mr. Struhs revealed:

·         The Bass family is in some sort of planning stages for a grocery market for the block between 1st, Pecan, Weatherford, and Grove (Map).

·         The Fort Worth Fire Department’s Station #1 is recommending a traffic light be installed at Belknap & Pecan.

·         Where the famed Fried hicken store once stood along Belknap in the Trinity Bluff area, a Marriott brand hotel is planned.

·         Retail is planned in Trinity Bluff, of a neighborhood complimentary sort - dry cleaners, etc. Sundance Square-style entertainment is unlikely due to alcohol restriction around Nash Elementary.

·         Ten foot easements were given to the city between the various Trinity Bluff developments along the actual bluff for eventual access paths to TRV waterfront attractions and amenities.

·         Some interesting stuff in there. A Bass-planned grocery market is something I have not heard anything about before.

Trustees told the college staff to complete the shells of the buildings so that they don’t deteriorate or cause any public hazards, but to then stop further construction.

"We’re just buying some time," Louise Appleman, board president, said after the meeting. "I polled the members, and I didn’t have the votes to do anything. We felt like the numbers and dollars were too vague. We want a professional to tell us what the best thing to do is."

The move does not rule out the possibility that the college may still sell the property — including the college’s land on the north side of the river — or that the college will occupy it for its administration offices and some college programs, Appleman said.

Having the college use the buildings "is a very viable option," Trustee Randall Canedy said.

Trustees were told that it could cost $28 million to $58 million to complete the four buildings to different stages of finish. One scenario also included following through with the controversial sunken plaza to serve as the entryway to the buildings. The plaza was designed to offer access to the riverfront and a pedestrian bridge. The college is no longer building the bridge.

Board members indicated that they want a better idea of the market value of their property and the buildings under construction before proceeding.

PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE

 Neighborhood and Recreational Enhancement Program:  A meeting to review the 10-year implementation plan for neighborhood and recreational enhancement along the Trinity River greenbelt. Meetings are as follows: Wednesday, October 15 @6pm at the East Regional Library; Tuesday, October 21 @6pm at the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce; and Wednesday, November 5 @6pm at Botanic Barden.