The Cotton Belt Trail is a part of the Regional Veloweb which is a 1,883-mile network of off-street shared-use paths in north Texas designed for multi-use trip purposes for cyclists, pedestrians and other non-motorized forms of transportation. The Cotton Belt Trail is a part of the Cotton Belt Trail Corridor that will ultimately provide a connection between Plano and Fort Worth. The trail corridor generally follows a portion of the planned TEXRail commuter rail project in Tarrant County as well as the Cotton Belt Silver Line rail corridor in Dallas and Collin counties. Along the way, the corridor links several key destinations and municipalities, such as two planned Transit-Oriented Developments (TOD) in North Richland Hills, Downtown Grapevine, Old Town Coppell, Cypress Waters in Dallas, Downtown Carrollton, Addison planned TOD and the Circle District, CityLine in Richardson, and Downtown Plano.
Since 2018, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) has been working cooperatively with the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) and respective cities along the Silver Line Corridor on a regional partnership to design and construct the Cotton Belt/ Silver Line Rail Trail within the DART owned right of way. DART is coordinating engineering design and construction of the trail through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), and entering into necessary agreements with FTA to construct the trail with funding awarded for the project. If the application is successful, the TA Set-Aside Program funds requested from TxDOT will be used for construction of portions of the Cotton Belt / Silver Line Rail Trail within the Town of Addison. The program funds require a local match and the Town of Addison will be contributing $307,469 of local match funds previously committed with funding awards by the NCTCOG Regional Transportation Council. The NCTCOG will coordinate funding for cost overruns, if any, for construction of the trail. Assuming the application is successful, once the Cotton Belt Trail in Addison is constructed, the Town of Addison will be responsible for maintenance of the Trail.
As a result of these efforts, the design for the Cotton Belt Trail in Addison is fully funded and no additional funding for local matches associated with the higher construction costs is being requested from Addison. Additionally, in September 2022, the Town of Addison applied for TA Set-Aside funding for DART to construct a portion of the Cotton Belt Trail adjacent to the bridge over Midway Road as a critical component of the Cotton Belt trail route through the Town. Staff received correspondence in November 2022 from the NCTCOG that the project was the number one recommended project in Dallas County and The Regional Transportation Council awarded $12,247,826 to the Town of Addison in December, 2022. The funding is passed directly to DART for construction of the trail once the procurement process is completed.
This project will be funded by federal transportation funds, and one of the most important aspects of a well-scored project is support. Council support by Resolution is not only required, but is also the most important way for our project to be increased to priority status. Applications for the TA Set-Aside funds are due to TxDOT by June 5, 2023.
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