Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge

The Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge is a planned bridge crossing Lewisville Lake in Denton County, Texas. The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is working cooperatively with Denton County to plan and design a toll bridge across the northwestern arm of Lewisville Lake. The new four-lane toll bridge will connect Swisher Road in Lake Dallas to Eldorado Parkway in Lakewood Village.

When complete, motorists in these fast-growing areas of Denton County will be able to travel on a new connection between Interstate 35E and the Dallas North Tollway, eliminating the circuitous (and highly congested) routes currently required around Lewisville Lake (though it would funnel traffic onto I-35E north of the bridge over Lewisville Lake, already a notorious bottleneck). The conceptual design of the project entails eight sections that, together, total 13 miles. Only the 1.7-mile bridge over the lake will be tolled. The bridge will be 55 feet above the normal water level, to allow clearance for sailboats. The "signature" of the bridge, according to the NTTA, is going to be the 360-foot steel section with arches that rise to 60-feet above the road deck (which resembles the arches of Austin's Pennybacker Bridge). The surfaces of this section will be lighted with LEDs at night to make the structure visible from the surrounding shores of the lake.

The project is expected to be completed in the Third quarter of 2009 (As of December 2007 per the NTTA website). The NTTA will fund and construct the toll bridge while the cities along the corridor, Denton County and Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will fund improvements to the roadways approaching the bridge. The NTTA currently projects tolls across the bridge section to be $1.00 for Tolltag customers and $1.25 for non-Tolltag drivers.

Project Costs

*Entire Project Estimate: $211.5 million
*Estimated NTTA Investment: $122.2 million (toll bridge only)
**Bridge section: $93 million (contract awarded to Jensen Construction Company)
**Toll Plaza and toll-related systems: $29 million

For details see [http://www.ntta.org/AboutUs/Projects/LLTB.htm NTTA Website on LLTB]

Progress

*May 2005 - The NTTA Board of Directors selected a preliminary design of the bridge, which features a distinctive tied arch spanning 360 feet at the center with approaches and thresholds flanked by pairs of lighted columns.
*Late 2005 - A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Environmental Impact Assessment is received
*Early 2006 - Completion of plans, specifications and estimates on the toll bridge and public hearings for sections 4-6 and 8. Design for sections 4-6 initiated.
*Spring 2006 - Denton County broke ground on Section 1, west of the bridge, and construction is under way.
*Summer 2006 - Construction on Section 3, the eastern approach to the bridge, is planned to begin in late summer 2006.
*January 2007 - Groundbreaking for the bridge was held in Denton County on January 31, 2007
*May 2007 - Crews have built and placed many of the rebar frames for the support columns on the west bank and will soon begin pouring concrete into them.

Map and Images

* [http://dentoncounty.com/Court/Precinct1/Forms/Project%20Map%202006-02.pdf Detailed Map (PDF)] : A detailed map of the whole project is available as a PDF from the Denton County Commissioner's page.
* [http://www.dentoncounty.com/court/Precinct1/images/Bridge%20Rendering%202006-03-04a.jpgHigh-resolution Rendering] : A high resolution rendering of the bridge's "gateway" span is available from the Denton County Commissioner's page.

References

* [http://www.ntta.org/AboutUs/Projects/LLTB.htm North Texas Tollway Authority - Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge]
*"Driving Forward" - Monthly NTTA Newsletter
** [http://enews.ntta.org/DrivingForward/January2007/ Page 1, January 2007 Edition]
** [http://enews.ntta.org/DrivingForward/January2007/BridgingGapLLTB.htm Page 2, January 2007 Edition]
** [http://enews.ntta.org/DrivingForward/June2007/ Page 1, June 2007 Edition]

External links

* [http://www.ntta.org North Texas Tollway Authority]
* [http://dentoncounty.com/court/precinct1/default.asp?Link=Corridor Denton County, Commissioner Precinct 1 - Lewisville Lake Bridge/FM 720 Project]