Friday, February 8, 2008

Construction to start early summer 2008 on Dickerson Parkway in Carrollton

By Minnie Payne

Bridge design that will be similar to bridge built over Furneaux Creek

CARROLLTON — For those people traveling on the four lane north/south Dickerson Parkway on the western side of Carrollton, prepare for some heavy construction to begin early summer 2008, with completion in mid 2009.

According to Mike McKay, P.E., Civil Engineering Manager for the City of Carrollton, the project consists of replacing the existing roadway between President George Bush Turnpike on the south to Frankford Road on the north with four lanes of pavement, built so that additional lanes can be constructed in the future as required.

McKay said that this requires changing the configuration of the road in that a large median will be created for future lanes and the drainage ditch on the east side of the road will be eliminated.

“Modification of the road configuration also affects the existing bridge over Furneaux Creek,” he said.

City staff initially investigated adjusting the roadway to utilize the existing bridge, he said, but this would have required a relatively sharp turn on both sides of the bridge to allow traffic to move from the new pavement configuration to the old bridge.

“Funds weren’t available at that time to fully fund the new bridge,” he said. “But with a $2,000,000 grant from Denton County, re-building the bridge, as well as incorporating some architectural features for bridge enhancement, was made possible.”

McKay said that architectural features primarily consist of modifications to the guardrail along both sides of the bridge.

“Other structural modifications are difficult to incorporate due to the physical limitations of the grades on either side of the bridge and the floodplain elevation of Furneaux Creek,” he said.

Cesar Molina, Jr., P.E., Director of Engineering for the City of Carrollton, said that the Dickerson Parkway project will contribute towards the sustainability of Carrollton and enhance access to the new Trinity Mills DART light rail transit station and associated transit-oriented development.

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