Construction on Fairway Drive, the Dam road, at the southern end of Grapevine Lake will begin on Monday, June 2, and continue for no more than six months.
Bryan Beck, the director of administration and engineering for the City of Grapevine, presented the project to Grapevine City Council at its March meeting.
It will expand the road to three lanes from Hwy 26 to Marina Drive and add a single-lane roundabout at the dam. The roundabout will service the driveways of the Silver Lake Marina and the Cowboys Golf Club.
“We expect the roundabout to improve safety by improving access to and from the commercial driveways and reducing speed of vehicles on the dam,” said Beck. “In addition, the roundabout would serve future expansion of the marina property without requiring a traffic signal.
The project will also provide a mixed-use trail for the existing trail network that connects to the day-use recreational facility at the dam.
The entire length of Fairway Drive will be closed because the space was too narrow to construct a road to bypass the construction. Instead, there will be a detour to take
Beck said a study was done and the detour took six minutes, but it was conducted during off-peak hours.
Fairway Drive has had a history of closures that has showed how important it is to keep properly maintained.
“You may recall the year-long closure of Fairway in 2018 and 2019 while the [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] made repairs to the dam,” said Beck. “That closure showed us all the need for the road for local access and as a regional artery.”
After that, Beck said the City and the Corps made the decision to inspect the roadway over the dam annually and make necessary minor repairs. While the street is closed, there will be some more improvements.
“In the spirit of making lemonade, we will use this closure as an opportunity to repave the full width of Fairway over the dam as part of our annual street work effort,” said Beck. “It has been more than 20 years since we last milled and paved over this section of the road.”
The road leads directly into Flower Mound and the Lakeside development, so traffic and delays are expected for drivers that take that route for daily use or to reach the commercial businesses such as the marina or the golf clubs.
