New Road & Bridge Over Future Bois d’Arc Lake Open To Traffic

FM 897 will provide north, south access across the lake and connect US 82 to FM 1396

The new FM 897 road and bridge over the future Bois d’Arc Lake is now open to traffic. Construction crews opened the 6.2-mile-long road and bridge (1.3 miles of that length) today. FM 897 connects Highway 82 on the south with FM 1396 on the north.

Construction on the road and bridge began in spring 2018 and was completed this month. Officials with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) have inspected the road and bridge. FM 897 is part of $50 million in road improvements NTMWD is doing in Fannin County as part of the Bois d’Arc Lake project.

“We are pleased this key project has been completed and is opened for public use,” said Rodney Rhoades, NTMWD Interim Executive Director. “Our focus now is on finishing construction of the dam and other projects in and around the lake bed so that we can begin impounding water early next year,” Rhoades added.

Other Bois d’Arc Lake projects include construction of the lake operations center, boat ramps, the raw water intake structure, pump station and pipeline to transport raw water to a treatment plant in Leonard, 35 miles from the dam. From the Leonard treatment plant, another pipeline will transport treated water 25 miles to connect to the existing NTMWD regional water distribution system.

Bois d’Arc Lake is scheduled to begin delivery of treated drinking water to NTMWD communities in spring 2022.  For more information, visit: www.BoisdArcLake.org.

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NOTEhttps://bit.ly/2YfEgoV Link to video and a photo provided by NTMWD of some of the first vehicles to travel over the bridge after its opening.