Fort Worth will improve safety and efficiency of key freight intersection, with commuter rail to come (TIGER Series)

More than 110 freight and passenger trains cross the intersection at Fort Worth’s Tower 55 every single day, resulting in a backlog of freight trains miles on end and often so long that some Fort Worth children result to crawling under or in-between the idling trains on their way to school.

This intersection currently operates at a mind-boggling 90 percent over capacity, and that congestion ripples throughout the national freight system.

The intersection, southeast of downtown Fort Worth and consisting of two north-south and two-east west tracks received $34 million through a TIGER II grant to help alleviate these problems. The improvements funded by the grant will allow 40 percent more trains through the intersection, providing 20 years of additional capacity and eliminating one of the worst freight bottlenecks in the middle of the country’s freight rail system.

This project serves as a great example of serving up local benefits while addressing a local, state and national problem all at once.

“There were so many people involved who explained that this was not just a local issue,” Rep. Kay Granger of Fort Worth told the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. “The congestion at Tower 55 is not only a local challenge but a national problem with continuing, and escalating, economic repercussions.”

Local officials will now be able to proceed with new pedestrian underpasses to improve safety — hard to imagine children crawling through trains on their way to school — improved emergency vehicle access to nearby neighborhoods and closed grade crossings that make the surrounding areas safer. The funding also will allow for expanded commuter rail connections in the greater Forth Worth region.

State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, said the safety improvements were desperately needed for the rail crossings. ”These funds will help to protect schoolchildren on the near-north side, who had to crawl under idling trains,” Davis said.

The project costs $91.2 million in all, and according to Fort Worth officials, will create nearly 900 construction jobs per year in 2011 and 2012 and generate $700 billion or more in economy activity. The City of Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Transportation Authority and the North Central Texas Council of Governments are picking up the remainder of the tab.

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief hailed the federal funds and the project’s potential to improve safety and quality of life. The mayor first received word of the grant from Rep. Granger while he was in the middle of a meeting.

“Now, because of the improvements that are going to be at grade for Tower 55 — that clears the road for commuter rail,” he said upon hearing news of the announcement. “That is huge. The connectivity there for our city and (Dallas-Fort Worth Airport) to create that seamless connection to the East keeps us on track — literally, on track