There’s a new gateway to Fort Worth – or at least a new site for the monument indicating the gateway.
The Fort Worth City Council heard a report June 12 concerning a change in the site for the Gateway Monument Art Project. It is now slated for State Highway 121.
The Texas Department of Transportation recently told the city that the previously approved site along Interstate 30 is no longer feasible due to three factors:
*The Federal Highway Administration has revoked its previous variance for size on the project and now is requiring the project to conform to TxDOT’s monument guidelines, which had been waived for this project.
*TxDOT’s future expansion of I-30, while not now funded, is the subject of a current developed schematic, and this project may be expedited within the next 10 years once funds are identified.
*High speed rail being planned for North Texas shows the right of way along the north side of the I-30 corridor as the preferred route.
The monument project was previously proposed for two different sites along I-30. The goal was to identify an appropriate site on a state highway, as it would meet the requirements for using the $265,000 Governor’s Community Achievement Award and not require federal highway approval.
After a review, a site along westbound Highway 121 in the north median west of Maxine Street and east of Beach Street was recommended by Fort Worth Public Art and city staff and approved by TxDOT’s North Area Office.
“When the artist team and FWPA staff first learned the project would need to be relocated from the previously approved I-30 location, we were very disappointed, as were the residents of Fort Worth’s east side who have long supported the project,” said Public Art Project Manager Anne Allen. “FWPA worked quickly with TxDOT to identify and vet an appropriate new site, so that the project could still go forward.
“The new State Highway 121 site is a great site. It offers dramatic views of the downtown Fort Worth skyline to everyone traveling into Fort Worth from the DFW Airport and beyond. The artist team of Etty Horowitz and Kevin Sloan feels the new site offers opportunities as well as challenges, and under a new preliminary design agreement they will begin working to revise the existing design, including the core-ten steel letters that spell Fort Worth, the re-purposed concrete traffic barriers and the pavers from Acme Brick, to fit the new location.”
District 6 Councilman Jungus Jordan also expressed disappointment in the relocation and urged a more concerted effort in having art programs carried out as planned.
“To say there’s not great disappointment over this is a great understatement,” Jordan said. “We’ve known I-30 is going to be improved. We’ve known high speed rail is coming to our city. We’ve known Arlington has just unveiled a gateway sign into their community on I-30.
“To have worked on something or envisioned something for at least 12 years and to get the notice it ain’t gonna happen … We need to come up with a plan to be sure our public art programs are being executed right along with other bond issues.”
The project will also no longer be referred to as a Gateway Monument project per TxDOT’s instructions and will not have to conform to the 2008 TxDOT Gateway Monument Guidelines. It will instead be referred to as an Art and Landscape Beautification project.
A public hearing will be scheduled to present the new preliminary design, after which the Art Commission will make its recommendation to the council for a final design.