Overhead demolition won't close Lancaster

Removal of the old elevated section of Interstate 30 through downtown Fort Worth begins Monday, but the public is invited to a ceremonial send-off Friday morning.

By PAUL BOURGEOIS
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH - Motorists will encounter some disruptions for eight to 10 weeks as the old Interstate 30 overhead freeway is torn down, but the plan is to keep traffic flowing along Lancaster Avenue. Demolition of the 40-year-old overhead - from Jones to Henderson streets - is scheduled to begin Monday.

The city plans an hourlong ceremonial send-off for the old freeway at 9 a.m. Friday. The event isn't as much a celebration of the end of what locals call the overhead as it is the kickoff of the redevelopment of a section of West Lancaster Avenue into a grand, tree-lined, people-friendly boulevard with shops, restaurants and apartments. The public is invited to the festivities outside the Texas & Pacific Station, which will become a terminal this fall for the Trinity Railway Express, a commuter rail linking Fort Worth and Dallas. The celebration will include the unveiling of the city's plans for the new Lancaster Avenue. There will be speeches, music, food, entertainment, fireworks and an F-16 flyover; part of a 40-foot section of the freeway will be demolished. Public parking will be available in the Frank Kent parking lot east of the T&P Building and at the Tarrant County Convention Center garage.

The speakers will include Steve Simmons, district engineer for the state Transportation Department; Mayor Kenneth Barr; John Johnson, commissioner of the Transportation Department; Rep. Kay Granger; Bob and Anne Bass; and Ruth Carter Stevenson. The transformation of Lancaster is scheduled to cost about $14 million in city, state and federal money. Plans call for keeping at least one, and possibly two, of the eastbound and westbound lanes of Lancaster open at all times during the freeway demolition.

The overhead, which towers over the Lancaster median, will be dismantled rather than demolished, said John Terry, central design engineer in the Fort Worth office of the Texas Department of Transportation. North/south streets under the freeway - such as Lamar, Taylor and Jennings streets - will be closed to vehicles only on weekends and during special events, Terry said. Terry said there will be sporadic closures, but for the most part, connections to and from the new freeway will be maintained. That includes westbound Lancaster to westbound I-30 and eastbound I-30 to eastbound Lancaster. Last month, the Transportation Department awarded a $15.3 million contract to Champagne-Webber of Houston to dismantle the overhead and to connect some of city's downtown streets to the new I-30. Westbound lanes of Lancaster will eventually connect with the westbound interstate and will be a link for on-ramps at Macon and Presidio streets. From eastbound I-30, motorists will be able to take an off-ramp to downtown at Cherry Street or stay eastbound on Lancaster. Eastbound lanes of Lancaster will eventually connect with I-30 at the new Mixmaster. Terry said the new connectors are expected to be ready 12 to 18 months after the overhead is removed.

City Planning Director Fernando Costa said Lancaster construction could begin in late 2002 and take about a year. Costa said the almost $14 million cost includes $8.8 million in federal money, $2.2 million from the state Transportation Department and $2.7 million in city funds designated for the project, principally from a 1998 bond issue.