Bicycling News

Fort Worth moves forward with bike lane project east of downtown

Bike lane poject will incorporate new technology.

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In a win for the bicycle community, Fort Worth is moving forward with a new bike lane project coming to East 1st Street and East 4th Street, east of downtown.

The East Fourth Street/First Street Bike Lane project is significant not only because it increases bicycling options, but also because it uses a new technology that will make it safer.

One existing lane along East 4th Street/East 1st Street will become a bike lane, which will run in both directions in a 2-mile span from I-35W to Haltom Road. They'll also build in buffer space between the bike lane and vehicle lanes.

This location was chosen to connect Gateway Park and downtown through designated bike lanes and special bike signals at three intersections.

The project will also debut new bike signal technology: Bike detection pads that communicate with standard signals showing a red, yellow, or green stenciled bike signal.

Once installed, it will provide connectivity, innovation, safety, inclusivity, safe user experience with protected bike lane signals.

Construction begins in February and is anticipated to take nine months to complete. Work will be done during the day and they don't anticipate detours.

The cost is estimated to be $2.9 million, with the majority of the funding - $2.3 million - provided by the North Central Texas Council of Governments through the Transportation Alternatives Project, which funds pedestrian bicycle related projects across the region.

An additional $617,000 will come from bond funds, according to project manager Ishkal Shrestha, who made a presentation at a public meeting held by the Transportation & Public Works (TPW) Department on February 15.

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University News

Univ of Texas at Arlington gets OK to proceed on west Fort Worth campus

Courtesy rendering

UTA West campus coming soon

A new university campus is in the works for west Fort Worth. According to a release, a proposal by the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) to purchase 51 acres of property in west Fort Worth got the thumbs up from the University of Texas System Board of Regents, paving the way for UTA West, a new campus that would be built in the Walsh Ranch development.

Advantageously positioned at the intersection of I-30 and I-20 at the western gateway of Fort Worth, the new campus could begin welcoming students as early as fall 2028.

UTA West will be developed as part of a multiyear plan to serve more than 10,000 students.

“Anytime the UT System can expand greater educational opportunity, access, and affordability to Texans, we’re going to do it,” says UT System Board of Regents chairman Kevin Eltife in a satement. “We’ve recently done it in east Texas and south Texas and now we’re heading west. We’re looking forward to planting a UT Arlington flag in west Fort Worth, currently the nation’s fastest growing city.”

"The western part of the metroplex has an ever-growing population, a plethora of student talent, and a wide breadth of opportunity for explosive economic advancement. UTA has long been a top supplier of talent to companies across Fort Worth, and this expansion will allow UTA to broaden its impact across our region,” said UTA President Jennifer Cowley.

Walsh Ranch is the 7,200-acre development in west Fort Worth that calls itself "Fort Worth's next great neighborhood," being developed with neighborhoods, town centers, mixed-use areas, and commercial space.

And now a university campus.

UTA in Fort Worth
The new campus would be only the latest in a decades-long partnership between UTA and the city of Fort Worth. That includes the UTA Research Institute (UTARI), a facility established in east Fort Worth in 1986; and the UTA Fort Worth Center, a continuing education center for the downtown Fort Worth community established in 2007.

In 2023, the UTA Institute of Urban Studies, the principal research center for the College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs, opened at UTA’s Fort Worth Center with a mission is to conduct research and provide technical assistance to city and county governments, governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations, and to offer education and teaching opportunities to individuals either already in or contemplating public service careers.

The University of Texas at Arlington is a comprehensive teaching, research, and public service institution with an enrollment of approximately 41,000 students, and is the second-largest institution in the UT System. In 2021, its combination of outstanding academics and innovative research contributed to its reaffirmation as a Carnegie R-1 “Very High Research Activity” institution, a significant milestone of excellence. The University is designated as a Hispanic Serving-Institution and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education and in 2022 earned the Seal of Excelencia for its commitment to accelerating Latino student success.