South Arlington drivers just picked up a long-awaited new escape route. The City of Arlington has opened the extension of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, a fresh north-south corridor over Interstate 20 that officials say should finally take a little pressure off the daily grind on Matlock Road and Collins Street.
The new four-lane, 1.18-mile stretch now links Bardin Road to Green Oaks Boulevard and comes with a 10-foot shared-use trail, sidewalks and ADA-compliant ramps. City projections say the added route could pull roughly 2,000 vehicles a day off Matlock Road and trim congestion there by about 5 percent in the near term.
City, county and community leaders marked the opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, according to the City of Arlington, which shared photos from the event and noted that the extension is now open to traffic. The city quoted Public Works Director Keith Brooks saying that delivering another north and south corridor provides traffic relief to Matlock Road and Collins Street.
Getting around southeast Arlington just got easier. The new Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive extension is open. The extension provides another north-south route over Interstate 20, easing congestion on major corridors like Matlock Road and Collins Street: https://t.co/yXoPwDeMqV pic.twitter.com/szBsBe6Zz0
— City of Arlington (@CityOfArlington) April 17, 2026
What the project built
The extension delivered a four-lane concrete roadway, a 10-foot hike-and-bike trail, and sidewalks with ADA-compliant ramps, according to the City of Arlington. The project also installed new traffic signals and upgraded storm drainage, water and sanitary sewer lines.
The corridor adds a connection to Embercrest Drive and includes streetlights and landscaping as part of the city’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality initiative, the city’s project page notes.
Who built it and how it was paid for
Arlington awarded the construction contract to Tiseo Paving Co., with a not-to-exceed price tag of about $16.97 million, according to city council minutes. Contractor listings show utility work on the project handled by Venus Construction.
The council record details a funding mix drawn from several buckets, including city bond funds, TxDOT grant money, and a Tarrant County transportation bond allocation.
Traffic relief and development potential
The city estimates the extension could reduce Matlock Road traffic by about 5 percent initially and as much as 10 percent over time, with roughly 2,000 vehicles per day expected to migrate to the new roadway. Officials say that should help commute times and make nearby underused parcels around Arlington Municipal Airport more attractive for private investment.
According to the City of Arlington, this is Arlington’s first major roadway extension since 2013. It was funded in part by the city’s 2014 bond program and a federal Surface Transportation Block Grant routed through NCTCOG.
