North Tarrant Express receives awards for Best Highway/Bridge and Best Safety

The North Tarrant Express (NTE) project, a joint venture between Ferrovial Agroman US and Webber has received awards for Best Highway/Bridge and Best Safety. The North Tarrant Express (NTE) project led by Bluebonnet Contractors was a joint venture between Ferrovial Agroman US and Webber worth $2.1-billion. The project involved reconstructing the 13 mile long east west highway corridor located in Tarrant Country. The Interstate 820 and State Highways 121/183 were completely rebuilt, creating new main lanes and adding in four state of the art tolled managed lines. The team worked hard to deliver the project on time whilst at the same time minimizing the impact upon local business and drivers. They confronted the issues that cropped up along the way, addressing 475 conflicts involving more than 1 million linear ft of utilities according to an article from ENR’s website. The design-build approach adopted by the team allowed them to modify the design and adjust phasing without setting back the project.

Safety Measures for North Tarrant Express Project

Very tight safety measures were in place throughout the project, a 24/7 customized safety program successfully met the challenge of managing various subcontractors carrying out work in the same areas. The highway is a highly populated area with over 200,000 cars passing though the corridor on a daily basis and as such a potentially hazardous place to undertake a construction project. All those involved in working on the North Tarrant Express had to attend a compulsory 4 hour safety and environmental orientation workshop which addressed a number of health and safety concerns. Various other safety meetings also took place on both a weekly and monthly basis. In the end, the work on the North Tarrant Express was actually finished nine months ahead of schedule and was the first public-private partnership to be completed in North Texas. The North Tarrant Express Project has also been recognised by ENR Texas & Louisiana as its 2015 Best Project of the Year in the Highway/Bridge category. You can find out all about the inauguration of the NTE here