Extending light rail from downtown Dallas to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport
At a glance
Bowman Engineering & Consulting, now part of GHD, provided construction management services for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Orange Line expansion to Irving, a 14-mile, $1.3 billion light rail project connecting North Irving and Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport as a critical piece of the region's long-term transit network.
The challenge
Extending light rail service to Irving and DFW Airport meant delivering a 14-mile corridor running parallel to the existing Green Line through downtown Dallas, then stretching northwest through the Las Colinas Urban Center before reaching the airport. Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) needed to deliver this expansion in phases across multiple design-build contracts, keeping each section coordinated with the next while managing the scale and complexity of a $1.3 billion program.
Our response
We provided construction management services for DART's Light Rail Build-Out Phase 2b of the Orange Line expansion to Irving. We took the lead construction manager role for the TRACK3 team, providing construction support across all phases of the design-build contracts.
The impact
The Orange Line now runs parallel to the Green Line through downtown Dallas to Bachman Station in Northwest Dallas, then continues northwest through the Las Colinas Urban Center to Belt Line Station. The first two sections, reaching the Irving Convention Center Station and Belt Line Station, opened in July 2012, with the third section extending service to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in August 2014. Together, these phases delivered a 14-mile, $1.3 billion light rail connection between downtown Dallas, Irving and DFW Airport, expanding the region's public transit network.