Fort Worth: Panther Island

[jrd1964]

The project will span 800 acres when completed, which could be in 2028 or later, depending on individual projects within the development. Currently, a project to build 3 bridges, 1 each on North Main, Jacksboro Hwy., and White Settlement Rd., is still coming along, despite a year-long delay. That was because TxDOT wanted to be certain of the structural design of each bridge. The bridges have to be complete before any river channeling or other infrastructure (including riverwalks along each waterway) can begin. The bridges should be complete in early 2020.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/loca ... 30685.html

[tamtagon]

Hopefully, by the time stuff is getting up an running on the new Panther Island, downtown will have experienced a solid decade of population growth, employment growth and a steady return of the pedestrian environment.

This city has been idling for way too long!

[cowboyeagle05]

I prefer Fort Worth's Trinity bridges they are something new compared to most designs and get the job done without the consistent drama we have had with Dallas Trinity bridges.

[itsjrd1964]

Fort Worth’s $1B Panther Island project quietly cut from 2018 federal budget

Looks like the city will need to find some of the $$$$ some other way, or wait longer for the Feds to come up with what's needed.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/poli ... 00860.html

[itsjrd1964]

Can Panther Island work without federal funds? Maybe, if Fort Worth plays the long game

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/busi ... =mainstage

[itsjrd1964]

Tarrant Water Board Backs 'Programmatic Review' of Panther Island Project

Federal funding has been held up, now the City wants an audit of Panther Island's financials.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Tarra ... 26091.html

[tamtagon]

!!Granger Danger!!
!!Granger Danger!!

[itsjrd1964]

When will those Panther Island bridges be open? Not as soon as commuters might hope

Bridges on North Main Street and on Jacksboro Highway are going in as part of the Panther Island project, but long delays have put off work. Parallel detours have been in use during the work on both bridges. Now it will be the middle of 2020 or into 2021 before the bridges might be done.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/loca ... 65575.html

[itsjrd1964]

$1.2 billion and no end in sight: Why Panther Island is so costly and complicated

https://www.star-telegram.com/latest-ne ... 28249.html

[joshua.dodd]

When will those Panther Island bridges be open? Not as soon as commuters might hope

Bridges on North Main Street and on Jacksboro Highway are going in as part of the Panther Island project, but long delays have put off work. Parallel detours have been in use during the work on both bridges. Now it will be the middle of 2020 or into 2021 before the bridges might be done.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/loca ... 65575.html

This is absurd. These bridges should have top priority and full funding in place before anything else.

[Dallas12]

When will those Panther Island bridges be open? Not as soon as commuters might hope

Bridges on North Main Street and on Jacksboro Highway are going in as part of the Panther Island project, but long delays have put off work. Parallel detours have been in use during the work on both bridges. Now it will be the middle of 2020 or into 2021 before the bridges might be done.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/loca ... 65575.html

This is absurd. These bridges should have top priority and full funding in place before anything else.

This is what happens when you have Federal, State, and Local government entities intersecting with their different pots of money, bureaucracies, and regulations.

[itsjrd1964]

KXAS/5 has been investigating behind the scenes of the Panther Island project:
https://www.nbcdfw.com/investigations/N ... 14351.html

[Tnexster]

There river projects just don't seem to come together as planned. Always a problem.

[KCHornedFrog]

Has anyone heard anything about this project recently?

[Kelley USA]

Has anyone heard anything about this project recently?

Actually, yes! It is moving forward. Back in January Fort Worth received $400 million from the Army Corps of Engineers. It'll allow them to finalize and complete all the plans. Here's an article for reference:

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local ... 72a1b9c44d

[Urban Toreador]

Another boondoggle. Anyone want to wager if it will be over budget and not completed on time?

[Tivo_Kenevil]

Another boondoggle. Anyone want to wager if it will be over budget and not completed on time?

Just like any highway project expansion

[zaphod]

I always got the impression that people in charge (both government and private sector) in DFW are impulsive and over-the-top and sometimes in coming up with "world class" plans they bite off more than they can chew.

Sometimes it works out, like DFW airport, Reunion Tower, DART, Cowboys Stadium, but it can also create weird half-baked results like the Las Colinas Urban Center, the post-apocalyptic ruin where "Midtown Dallas" was supposed to be, the Trinity signature Bridges over some grass and a drainage ditch pretending to be a river, the Kay Bailey Convention Center Heliport/Garage asphalt wasteland, the "urban renewal" of downtown Fort Worth to create the giant ugly convention center arena, freeway tangles, etc.

Panther Island is headed towards being the latter.

[Tivo_Kenevil]

^ it's called Dallas Brain

[rono3849]

I always got the impression that people in charge (both government and private sector) in DFW are impulsive and over-the-top and sometimes in coming up with "world class" plans they bite off more than they can chew.

Sometimes it works out, like DFW airport, Reunion Tower, DART, Cowboys Stadium, but it can also create weird half-baked results like the Las Colinas Urban Center, the post-apocalyptic ruin where "Midtown Dallas" was supposed to be, the Trinity signature Bridges over some grass and a drainage ditch pretending to be a river, the Kay Bailey Convention Center Heliport/Garage asphalt wasteland, the "urban renewal" of downtown Fort Worth to create the giant ugly convention center arena, freeway tangles, etc.

Panther Island is headed towards being the latter.

FYI, I live near "Midtown Dallas" and it has been an urban no man's land. There appears to be some activity in that they are completing the streets for the development along Preston Road. It may actually be moving forward.

[I45Tex]

Tillar Partners in local economic development subsidy negotiations to develop 512,000 square feet of office over retail on their 529 North Throckmorton Street site
https://www.bisnow.com/dallas-ft-worth/ ... rth-120947

"In downtown Fort Worth alone, there is $2.5B worth of development set to deliver over the next five to seven years. But other cities, such as Mansfield and Arlington, also have big projects in the works that are poised to put Tarrant County on the map."

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY WITH A FREE ACCOUNT.

[I45Tex]

I always got the impression that people in charge (both government and private sector) in DFW are impulsive and over-the-top and sometimes in coming up with "world class" plans they bite off more than they can chew.

Sometimes it works out, like DFW airport, Reunion Tower, DART, Cowboys Stadium, but it can also create weird half-baked results like the Las Colinas Urban Center, the post-apocalyptic ruin where "Midtown Dallas" was supposed to be, the Trinity signature Bridges over some grass and a drainage ditch pretending to be a river, the Kay Bailey Convention Center Heliport/Garage asphalt wasteland, the "urban renewal" of downtown Fort Worth to create the giant ugly convention center arena, freeway tangles, etc.

Panther Island is headed towards being the latter.

Just my opinion but it seems like Fort Worth is going to treat Panther Island as its big front porch of downtown and it's going to try to funnel its current population growth into momentum for downtown subsidies as long as the city council can keep it going without any major pushback from voters. That alone makes it different than Las Colinas or Midtown / Dallas International District and more comparable to The Woodlands Waterway, or to its likely role model, Bricktown Oklahoma City, which is the entertainment district adjacent to downtown OKC, or to Bricktown's role model, San Antonio Riverwalk (which, bringing it full circle, was only able to be done because of a daring San Antonio River diversion drainage project).

[I45Tex]

It's well established that the origin of FW's association with panthers was the published Dallas newspaperman's slur that a wild panther* had been seen (fast asleep, even?) in the street in Fort Worth in broad daylight simply because Fort Worth had so little going on there to deter it. So they might have been tempting fate to name a new neighborhood after that and expect it not to happen again zZz

* we still have bobcats, but that specimen was almost certainly a mountain lion. I imagine that the Trinity River pre-flood-control was still really wooded and integrated with its East Texas wetland forests, even that far west; but panthers are not really a thing in Texas, whereas there are sightings of black mountain lion looking creatures in East Texas to this day.

[Tnexster]

It's well established that the origin of FW's association with panthers was the published Dallas newspaperman's slur that a wild panther* had been seen (fast asleep, even?) in the street in Fort Worth in broad daylight simply because Fort Worth had so little going on there to deter it. So they might have been tempting fate to name a new neighborhood after that and expect it not to happen again zZz

* we still have bobcats, but that specimen was almost certainly a mountain lion. I imagine that the Trinity River pre-flood-control was still really wooded and integrated with its East Texas wetland forests, even that far west; but panthers are not really a thing in Texas, whereas there are sightings of black mountain lion looking creatures in East Texas to this day.

True enough, I was out visiting some friends that have a vacation home SE of Dallas, down 175 close to Athens area. Heavily wooded large homesites, hard to find and remote as it gets out there. Told a story about how they were standing in front of the house one evening and a small deer dropped out of a tree right in front of them. Shocking as that might be right after that happened a jet black mountain also came out of the tree but quickly ran into the woods. Funny I was just telling this story to someone yesterday after he talked about a mountain lion sighting in the middle of Grand Prairie.

[I45Tex]

I have a friend down in New Waverly (sometime home to the Beat writer William S. Burroughs, who wrote to friends about how wild nature was in East Texas) who raises rabbits and carries a pistol when she goes into the rabbit hutch because she often sees a black mountain lion watching her from the tree behind the hutch.

[itsjrd1964]

Panther Island buildings would go higher under new city plan

https://fortworthreport.org/2024/04/20/ ... city-plan/