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Once complete, the CentrePort Trail will connect the far east Fort Worth rail station to the Arlington River Legacy Trail. (Haley Samsel | Fort Worth Report)
” data-medium-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG_2191-scaled.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG_2191-scaled.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button”>A major trail development is underway after Fort Worth City Council members approved a $6 million construction contract in January. CentrePort Trail will start at the Trinity Railway Express CentrePort Station in far east Fort Worth and conclude at the east end of the Arlington River Legacy Trail. The trail, not far from the American Airlines headquarters and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, will include a 12-foot concrete multiuse path, trail structures, wide shoulders, 911 location markers and trail signage. Jing Yang, the city of Fort Worth’s project manager and landscape architect, said this project will help give people easier access to the station and connect Fort Worth and Arlington. Construction started in June and is projected to finish in a year, Yang said. “If you want to go to the train station, you have to drive,” Yang said. “By using a trail, they’re not only connecting one community to another community, it’s connecting one city to multiple cities.” Jeff Kinlan has lived in Viridian — a neighborhood in Arlington near the planned trail — for nearly five years and believes North Texas is not pedestrian- or bike-friendly due to what he calls a “huge mesh” of highways, parking lots and big box stores. The construction of the CentrePort Trail is a huge step forward in connecting different cities and making it more accessible, he said. “I think this is a great step in connecting not only those two major population centers, but the cities and the transit centers along the way,” Kinlan said. “It gives people another option to get out of their cars and to see more places without having to worry about traffic.”Kinlan said he often goes to Dallas with his wife for date nights but that it can be stressful when he has to drive 30 minutes to an hour depending on traffic, followed by the difficulty in finding parking. “All of us here (at Viridian) have easy access to the River Legacy Trail,” Kinlan said. “If you can just quickly ride your bike to the CentrePort Station, you can quickly take the train, ride it all the way into Dallas, and watch a Mavs game or eat at a new restaurant. It’s a lot easier than having to worry about jumping on a highway, especially with rush hour.” Yang said the CentrePort Trail is one of many trails planned to help connect the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Through the DFW Discovery Trail and 2045 Regional Veloweb, the cities of Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Irving and Dallas look to implement a continuous regional trail from downtown Fort Worth to downtown Dallas. Plans for a 63-mile regional trail system got underway in 2013, and the North Central Texas Council of Governments anticipates most sections of the trail to be completed by 2026. The CentrePort Trail was federally funded by the Texas Department of Transportation and budgeted in the city’s parks department, Yang said. “Eventually we want to provide more alternative transportation options to people instead of just driving,” Yang said. “Using the federal grant to create different transportation options is really important to improve the living quality of people in the region.”Kevin Vu is a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and contributor to the Fort Worth Report.