The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) recently completed the extension of the Lamar Blvd entrance ramp/acceleration lane on westbound IH-30, which has eased congestion on the highway.

The previous acceleration lane forced traffic to merge onto the main lanes just east of the Davis Drive bridge which created a bottleneck effect on traffic flow.

This project extended the acceleration lane west of the Davis Drive bridge to allow traffic to merge onto the main lanes just east of the Fielder Road exit, but it also created more room for main lane traffic to weave and exit at Fielder Road.

Ed Bell Construction was the general contractor selected by TxDOT. Construction started in September 2013 and was completed in March 2014. The construction cost was approximately $640,000.

TxDOT has worked with the City of Arlington as a partnership on these capacity improvement type projects and has coordinated their construction activities with the Department of Public Works and Transportation on major venue/special events traffic.