City of Fort Worth to Fund 1st Street Pedestrian Walkway
May 29,2015
Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. (DFWI) in partnership with the City of Fort Worth (CFW) will be conducting streetscape improvements in hope of facilitating improvements for pedestrians between 1st Street and 3rd Street, east of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) train tracks in Downtown. First Street closed as a result of at-grade improvements for the BNSF tracks recently completed.
Pursuant to Plan 2023, the Ten Year Strategic Action Plan for Downtown Fort Worth, DFWI’s project goal is to enhance and encourage better connectivity into Downtown. The plan calls for the need “to expand the Downtown Core by focusing on targeted areas.” One of these areas is the area identified as “East Sundance (Expansion Area 3).” Most of this area is owned by one entity, Sundance Square Inc., and we anticipate development will occur as a next phase of their Master Plan. Immediately east of that area is Hillside Apartments, a 172-unit mixed income neighborhood, the 210 units at the Depot Apartments and the Morning Chapel CME Church. There are two other churches in the nearby community, Allen Chapel AME Church and the Greater St. James Baptist Church. We anticipate addition development will occur east of the tracks in the next three to five years. Third Street is the main pedestrian and bike path into the core from this community now that 1st Street is closed. The route travels under the BNSF train underpass.
DFWI has facilitated a number of meetings between BNSF, Downtown stakeholders and the City of Fort Worth to develop a mitigation strategy for the closure of 1st Street. As mitigation for the closure, BNSF committed funding for pedestrian improvements in the immediate area. The concept for improving pedestrian circulation in this area is:
• to create a safe route and easier connection from 1st Street to the existing street grid;
• make necessary improvements with respect to ADA-compliance;
• improve the experience under the 3rd Street BNSF underpass by widening the sidewalks, relocating a fire hydrant, potentially adding street trees and lighting where possible;
• improve the experience crossing 3rd Street by adding crosswalks and other pedestrian safety features if warranted.
Please see project plans below:
