South Fort Worth is getting its first progressive design-build transportation project, a nearly mile-long road extension that will vault over active Union Pacific Railroad tracks on a 750-foot bridge. The $42 million Everman Parkway Extension also includes a multilane roundabout, multiuse trails and ADA-compliant crosswalk signals, with completion anticipated in mid-2027.
The project traces back to the City of Fort Worth's 2022 bond program, which incorporated the extension before the city's Transportation & Public Works Department formally announced the project in 2024, according to Burns & McDonnell. Burns & McDonnell submitted the initial proposal as the only team serving as an integrated design-builder, and ultimately secured the work, per the same account. The firm is delivering the project as a $42 million greenfield extension of Everman Parkway in southern Fort Worth, according to the company's project page.
As Construction Owners reports, the extension is intended as an initial step in Fort Worth's broader effort to address roughly 200 remaining railroad crossings across the city, where rail operations have forced motorists onto longer routes. The new parkway is designed to connect residential neighborhoods with the Everman industrial corridor, adding both a roadway and a pedestrian connection across the rail corridor itself.
A Faster Path From Contract to Groundbreaking
Progressive design-build brings design and construction teams together from the outset, rather than keeping those phases separate as in traditional design-bid-build contracting. That structure let engineering decisions, construction sequencing and field conditions be considered collaboratively, and the project reportedly achieved groundbreaking within nine months of contract execution — a pace the project page describes as a record for the city. The team also developed an initial cost estimate at nearly zero percent design to validate budget alignment, and advanced two early work packages — including tree clearing outside seasonal bat nesting windows and upgrades to existing clay sanitary sewer lines — ahead of final design completion.
Freight rail operations will continue throughout construction, which has added logistical complications for the team working near the tracks. Because Union Pacific trains cannot simply be stopped on demand, overhead girder lifts for the bridge have had to be executed within carefully negotiated work windows, the Benchmark report notes.
Swapping Two Bridges For One Box Culvert
Sycamore Creek, which the project area crosses, is described as an environmentally sensitive area connected to the Trinity River. Rather than build the two separate bridges originally anticipated there, the project team developed an eight-cell reinforced-concrete box culvert as an alternative — each of its eight channels measuring 8 feet by 8 feet. The culvert is meant to provide channels for water flow while helping limit erosion near surrounding areas.
That channel realignment and box culvert strategy eliminated two bridge structures altogether and saved more than $1 million, according to Burns & McDonnell's project page. City officials and the firm also gathered community feedback on transportation access and pedestrian safety as the design took shape.
Augmented Reality Guides Crews In The Field
Burns & McDonnell has fed 3D design models directly into earthwork management systems to optimize material movement and coordinate subcontractor sequencing across the site, per the Benchmark account. Field crews are also using Trimble SiteVision, a technology that overlays a virtual 3D engineering model directly onto the physical environment in real time.
That augmented-reality tool lets personnel verify station alignments, map underground utilities and stake out site features, checking construction details before concrete placement or structural installation. The approach reflects a strong year for the firm more broadly — Burns & McDonnell generated more than $1 billion in revenue last year across ENR's Texas and Southeast region, with roughly 75% of that earned in the Texas and Louisiana subregion, and the firm was named ENR Texas & Southeast's Texas & Louisiana Design Firm of the Year, according to ENR.
Separately, the Star-Telegram has described the work as a roughly half-mile extension of West Everman Parkway running from Rosedale Springs Lane to Cameron Hill Point, linking Everman Parkway to an extended Hemphill Street via a roundabout — a somewhat different length than the nearly one-mile figure cited in Burns & McDonnell's materials. The discrepancy in project length between the two accounts was not resolved in available reporting.
