The bottleneck often appearing at Bonds Ranch Road in North Fort Worth is hoped to be alleviated by a new bridge being built over the railroad tracks.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) announced on Twitter on June 6 that it had been allocated upwards of $17 million from the Federal Railroad Administration to erect an overpass at Bonds Ranch Road, which has become a busy thoroughfare near the U.S. 81 and U.S. 287 interchanges.

The project is expected to cost $23 million, with the City of Fort Worth picking up $4 million and BNSF Railway, one of the largest freight operators in North America, covering $1.5 million, according to WFAA.

Roughly 36 trains pass through the at-grade rail crossing each day, causing more than two hours of delays.

“You can’t imagine what [residents] go through here on a day-to-day basis,” said Russell Fuller, president of the North Fort Worth Alliance, according to WFAA. “I’ve been told that it can take 45 minutes to an hour to get through there.”

As local Council Member Macy Hill explained to NBC 5, the infrastructure throughout Fort Worth is not suited to its number of motorists.

As for the notorious rail crossing at Bonds Ranch Road, “I’ve sat and waited for the train to pass,” Hill said, according to NBC 5. “It affects [residents’] everyday lives, everything from going to the grocery store, taking their kids to school.”

The overpass could also improve motorists’ safety. There are approximately 2,000 collisions resulting in 200 fatalities per year at railroad grade crossings, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration.

In 2022, Texas saw by far the most compared to other states, with 242 collisions and 30 fatalities reported.

Yet the traffic delays on Bonds Ranch Road have also affected first responders, according to the findings of a TxDOT investigation.

Work on the overpass is expected to commence in 2026.

“The grade separation will mean there is no possibility of collision between trains and vehicles and no waiting for a train to pass,” explained Amit Bose, an administrator from the Federal Railroad Administration, according to NBC 5.

Once completed in 2028, the new overpass will have four vehicle lanes, a bike lane, and a pedestrian walkway.

Separate plans have also been given the go-ahead to reconfigure the exit from U.S. 287 and widen Bonds Ranch Road from two to four lanes, according to WFAA.