| I-820 | |||
| Get started | Benbrook | ||
| End | Fort Worth | ||
| Length | 35 mi | ||
| Length | 57 km | ||
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According to 800zipcodes, Interstate 820 or I -820, also known as Loop 820, is an Interstate Highway in the US state of Texas. The highway forms a partial ring around Fort Worth in the Dallas – Fort Worth metroplex conurbation. The highway runs around the west, north and east sides of the city and is 57 kilometers long.
Travel directions
It stacks between I-30 and I-820 in western Fort Worth.
In Benbrook, the highway begins as a branch off Interstate 20, which runs from Abilene toward Dallas. There are then 2×3 lanes available. A 4-level stack interchange will quickly cross Interstate 30, which begins just west of here, and runs through Dallas to Little Rock in Arkansas. One passes by White Settlement, a small suburb on the west side of Fort Worth. With 2×4 lanes one crosses Lake Worth, a reservoir that continues into the city of Fort Worth. Many connections in this area are designed as cloverleaf. Here and there are new neighborhoods with hundreds of houses that look exactly the same. On the north side of Fort Worth one then crosses Interstate 35 West, which runs from Austin towards Oklahoma City. This is followed by a better developed corridor with express lanes and general purpose lanes. In general, there are 8 to 10 lanes of traffic, with wickerwork and frontage roads.
You then pass through the town of Haltom City, a small suburb. In North Richland Hills, I-820 turns south, continuing straight on SR-121 that runs from Fort Worth to the metropolitan airport. Both roads are briefly double numbered, and have 2×4 lanes. A few miles away, SR-121 turns back toward downtown Fort Worth. One then joins I-820 through the eastern neighborhoods of Fort Worth. After a few kilometers the Interstate 30 is again crossed, and the highway has 2×3 lanes here. Almost at the end of the road, US 287 merges, running from Fort Worth to Mansfield. There will be 2×4 lanes here, until I-820 ends at Interstate 20, and US 287 piggybacks on it.
History
The Fort Worth Beltway has its origins in 1935 road plans, when a connection was sought between US 80 and US 81, which in 1951 was designated Loop 217, a freeway on the southwest side of Fort Worth. In the early 1950s, plans were made for an eastern Fort Worth bypass. This section was included in the 1955 Interstate Highways plan. The northwest portion of the Fort Worth ring road was not included in the plan, however, and it was not until 1968 that this section between I-20 and I-35W also became part of the Fort Worth highway plan. Fort Worth and funded as Interstate Highway.
The first section of Fort Worth’s ring road opened in September 1963 on the east side of the city, between I-20 and the southern interchange with State Highway 121. Then, in 1965 and 1966, the northern ring road to I- 35W opened. Originally planned to build Fort Worth’s west ring closer to the city, the SH 183 freeway opened in 1959 between Vickery Boulevard and I-20 is a remnant of this. In 1957, even before that stretch opened, plans were being made to extend the western beltway further from Fort Worth. This would later coincide with part of Interstate 20.
Construction of the west ring was delayed due to lack of funds, mainly because it was not included in the original Interstate Highways plan in 1955. After years of lobbying, TxDOT approved the section in 1965 and it was included in the Interstate Highways plan in 1968. Construction began fairly quickly after that, with the first section opening between Main Street and I-35W north of Fort Worth in January 1974, and the easy-to-build sections opened in 1975-1976. Two sections took slightly longer, the northwest section included a bridge over Lake Worth, which was commissioned March 31, 1978, and it was not until March 12, 1982 that the southwest section opened between I-30 and Benbrook Highway, after which I-820 was completed. used to be.
Opening history
| From | Unpleasant | Length | Date |
| SH 121 (south) | I-20 (east) | 15.8 km | 16-09-1963 |
| Rufe Snow Drive | SH 121 (south) | 6.4 km | 19-07-1965 |
| I-35E (north) | Rufe Snow Drive | 6.9 km | 06-07-1966 |
| Main Street | I-35W (north) | 4.8 km | 00-01-1974 |
| Camp Bowie West Road | Silver Creek Road | 4.8 km | 00-00-1975 |
| SH 199 | Main Street | 4.8 km | 00-00-1976 |
| Silver Creek Road | SH 199 | 8.0 km | 31-03-1978 |
| I-20 (west) | Camp Bowie West Road | 3.7 km | 12-03-1982 |
North Tarrant Express
Between late 2010 and October 2014, 2×2 express lanes were added to I-820 and SH 121 in northeast Fort Worth, between I-35W and SH 183 at Euless. The corridor now has 4+2+2+4 lanes and frontage roads, with the inner lanes being express lanes for which tolls have to be paid. The project was the second major express lane project in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to open. In construction, I-820 and SH 121 were completely reconstructed, with many new flyovers at huge interchanges with other highways. The project is called the North Tarrant Express. The toll lanes opened on October 4, 2014. After opening, traffic jams decreased by 80 percent while traffic increased by 23 percent.
I-35W / I-820 interchange
The interchange between I-35W and I-820 on the north side of Fort Worth was a typical 1960s design with left-hand exits and a lane split. Therefore, turning traffic could maintain a relatively high speed compared to a cloverleaf, but the left-hand in and outs became problematic with higher traffic intensities. The node has been drastically reconstructed in two phases into a stack with 12 flyovers. The large number of flyovers is a result of the construction of express lanes on I-35W and I-820, which have their own flyovers for turning traffic.
First up, the flyovers were constructed as part of the North Tarrant Express Phase 1, with express lanes being built on I-820 between 2011 and 2014. In fact, these were just two flyovers, with the rest of the interchange not yet reconstructed. The second reconstruction followed at the North Tarrant Express Phase 2, where express lanes were built on I-35W between 2015 and 2018. The rest of the interchange was also reconstructed into a stack with 12 flyovers and lanes that go straight through the interchange into instead of split.
Future
Interstate 820 East
In addition to the North Tarrant Express project, it is planned to add express lanes and additional general purpose lanes on I-820 from SH 121 in Hurst to Randol Mill Road in eastern Fort Worth. This project is 6 kilometers long. The road section currently has 2×4 lanes on the double numbering with SH 121 and 2×2 lanes south of it. In January 2016, $1.3 billion was made available to address congestion in Texas. Of this, $46 million is also available to widen the 2×2 portion of I-820.
In September 2017, the plans for I-820 East were presented. The highway will be widened between both branches of SH 121 in Richland Hills to 2×6 lanes and one express lane in each direction, resulting in a total of 14 lanes on this stretch of road, plus 3 lane frontage roads in each direction. The section between SH 121 and I-30 will be widened to 2×5 lanes, and the interchange between I-820 and the south branch of SH 121 will be completed, with flyovers from south to west and vice versa. There will also be flyovers from SH 121 to Trinity Boulevard.
Southeast Connector
Under the heading “Southeast Connector”, it is planned to reconstruct I-20 and the connecting I-820 and US 287 between Fort Worth and Arlington. This includes the large-scale reconstruction of the interchanges and widening of these highways. In particular, the I-20 / I-820 node is problematic because there are left-wing evaders here. The project includes a total of 25 miles of freeway, including 10 miles of I-20 between Forest Hill Drive and Park Springs Boulevard, 9 miles of I-820 between I-30 and I-20, and 7 miles of US 287 between Bishop Street and Sublett Road. These three freeways converge in southeastern Fort Worth. In September 2020, a FONSI was issued for this project.
Lane Configuration
| From | Unpleasant | Lanes | Comments |
| exit 0 | exit 6 | 2×3 | |
| exit 6 | Exit 10 | 2×4 | |
| Exit 10 | Exit 16 | 2×3 | |
| Exit 16 | Exit 22 | 4×2 / 3+2+2+3 | North Tarrant Express |
| Exit 22 | Exit 24 | 2×4 | double numbering with SR-121 |
| Exit 24 | exit 28 | 2×2 | |
| exit 28 | Exit 30 | 2×3 | |
| Exit 30 | exit 33 | 2×2 | |
| exit 33 | Exit 34 | 2×4 | double numbering with US 287 |
Congestion
Since the construction of the express lanes, I-820 has been less prone to traffic congestion. The eastern portion of I-820 is the most congested, especially south of SH 121. The rest of I-820 is adequately constructed for traffic.
Connections & traffic intensities
| # | destination | AADT |
| 1 | Dallas, Abilene | 54.100 |
| 1A | Fort Worth, Team Ranch Road | 54.100 |
| 1B | Fort Worth, Chapin Road | 54.100 |
| 2 | Fort Worth, Camp Bowie Boulevard | 60,700 |
| 3 | Abilene, Fort Worth | 92.100 |
| 3C | Fort Worth, Westpoint Boulevard | 92.100 |
| 4 | Fort Worth, White Settlement Road | 81,700 |
| 5A | Fort Worth, Clifford Street | 81,700 |
| 5B | Fort Worth, Silver Creek Road | 81,700 |
| 6 | Fort Worth, Las Vegas Trail | 80,900 |
| 8 | Fort Worth, Navajo Trail | 79,800 |
| 9 | Fort Worth, Quebec Street | 79,800 |
| 10A | Fort Worth, Jacksboro | 98,700 |
| 10B | Lake Worth, Azle Avenue | 98,700 |
| 12 | Fort Worth, Marine Creek Parkway | 93,700 |
| 13 | Fort Worth, Main Street | 110,200 |
| 14 | Fort Worth, Railhead Road | 110,500 |
| 15 | Fort Worth, Blue Mound Road | 110,500 |
| 16C | Fort Worth, Mark IV Parkway | 110,500 |
| 16 | Fort Worth, Denton, Oklahoma City | 104,400 |
| 17 | Fort Worth, North Riverside Drive | 104,400 |
| 18 | Haltom City, Haltom Road | 104,400 |
| 19 | Haltom City, Denton Highway | 144,800 |
| 20A | North Richland Hills, Iron Horse Boulevard | 144,800 |
| 20B | North Richland Hills, Rufe Snow Drive | 144,800 |
| 21 | North Richland Hills, Holiday Lane | 135,400 |
| 22A | North Richland Hills, Bedford-Euless Road | 135,400 |
| 22B | DFW Airport, Dallas, McKinney | 167,300 |
| 23 | Hurst, Pipeline Road | 167,300 |
| 24A | Hurst, Richland Hills | 167,300 |
| 24B | Fort Worth | 100,400 |
| 25 | Fort Worth, Trinity Boulevard | 100,400 |
| 26 | Fort Worth, Randol Mill Road | 100,400 |
| 27 | Fort Worth, John T. White Road | 100,400 |
| 28A | Dallas, Fort Worth | 104,000 |
| 28B | Fort Worth, Brentwood Stair Road | 104,000 |
| 29 | Fort Worth, Meadowbrook Drive | 104,000 |
| 30A | Fort Worth, Craig Street | 104,000 |
| 30B | Fort Worth, Lancaster Avenue | 98,500 |
| 30C | Fort Worth, Ramey Avenue | 98,500 |
| 31 | Fort Worth, East Berry Street | 98,500 |
| 32 | Fort Worth, Wilbarger Street | 87.100 |
| 33A | Fort Worth | 145,900 |
| 33B | Fort Worth, Martin Street | 145,900 |
| 33C | Fort Worth, Sun Valley Drive | 145,900 |
| 34A | Abilene, Waxahachie, Dallas |
