The changes would then be facilitated by Bluebonnet’s traffic flow teams who handed the enormously complex job of routing traffic through the job site while meeting the needs of the construction crews and the demands of the contract.

Since road closures were barred during the day by TxDOT (unless high lane rental fees were met) Bluebonnet’s traffic flow group spent more than 400,000 hours over the past three years finding a working schedule for the more than 4,400 lane closures that would maximize traffic sequencing and construction phasing.

“Logistics on a project of this magnitude is a significant challenge,” says Pablo Molla, CEO of Bluebonnet Contractors. “We need to balance our commitment to keeping the 200,000 cars that drive the corridor each day moving with the need to advance construction activities as quickly as possible.”

The NTE project will be followed by a similar effort to improve SH 183 into Dallas County. The project involves the upgrade of existing lanes and creation of managed lanes over almost 18 miles of roadway. The project will run from Industrial Boulevard in Euless, past the southern entrance of DFW Airport to I-35E in Dallas. It will also include a portion of SH 114 and Loop 12.