FORT WORTH, Texas — Cars will begin crossing the White Settlement Road bridge by the end of this year, according to a Texas Department of Transportation engineer.
At a Fort Worth City council meeting Tuesday, officials gave an update on the Panther Island bridges project, which is now $19.4 million over budget.
Loyl Bussell, a TxDOT engineer, said the White Settlement bridge will be completed by the end of this year, while the Henderson and Main Street bridges will be done at the end of 2021.
“We knew there were going to be some challenges,” Bussell said. “We don’t think we’re going to run into any issues moving forward.”
Jason George, the owner of Angelo’s BBQ on White Settlement Road, sees the unfinished bridge every day and says it’s hurting business.
Work started five years ago with a completion date set for summer 2018.
“It’s hard. There’s no other way to describe it,” George said. “There’s lots of places that have just gone out of business because of this.”
RELATED: Fort Worth businesses ask customers not to forget them, as past-deadline construction continues
The project is supposed to connect the future Panther Island to downtown Fort Worth.
“It makes you feel good that there’s some hope at the end of the tunnel that it’s finally going to get here,” George said.
Officials say the unique "V" design is the reason for the extra cost. The initial estimate was $69.9 million. The current projection is $89.3 million. The North Central Texas Council of Governments will use grant funding to pay for $15 million. Tax increment financing will pay for the additional $4.4 million over the next five years.
“This is a critical project for the city of Fort Worth,” Fort Worth mayor Betsy Price said. “It’s had lots of hiccups. It’s caused lots of people lots of headaches.”
“It’s more than a couple hiccups," George said. “I don’t think that’s the right word. More of a mess.”
At the Trinity River Vision Authority board meeting Tuesday, officials shared that local taxpayers have not spent $331,395,999 on the entire Panther Island project while the federal government has kicked in nearly $79 million as of the end of last year.
Last week, the Army Corps’ budget showed it plans to commit $1.5 million to the project this year, half the cost to complete a feasibility study that could take up to three years to complete.
At this point, George doesn’t have a lot of hope the bridges portion of the project will stay on schedule.
“If they say the end of this year, to me that means next summer,” he said.