$144.4 million I-35 widening in Denton County heads to bid Nov. 4

The Texas Department of Transportation will take bids Nov. 4 on a $144.4 million widening of Interstate 35 in Denton County, the second-largest contract on its November statewide letting.

TxDOT's open project data describes contract 11263201 this way: reconstruct and widen I-35 from a four-lane to a six-lane freeway, and convert the four-lane discontinuous frontage roads to continuous four- and six-lane frontage roads. The limits run from north of Rector Road to south of FM 455, through Denton and Sanger. The figure is TxDOT's sealed engineer's estimate. The Dallas District administers the work.

The full description in TxDOT's data goes further than the lane count. It lists new sidewalks, a new shared-use path, turn lanes, a Texas U-turn, ITS installation and signal improvements along the frontage roads.

Contract terms

The data lists:

• a maximum of 1,001 working days;
• a proposal guaranty of $100,000;
• a single project record, so the whole estimate covers one corridor job rather than a bundle.

Continuous frontage roads usually mean new bridges or ramp reconfigurations at cross streets, extensive drainage and phased traffic control. Those are the packages that subcontractors in Denton and neighboring counties will want to price.

Part of a busy North Texas letting

The Dallas District has four contracts in November. Besides the I-35 job, they include a $39.9 million reconstruction of SH 5 in Collin County that would take the road from two to four lanes, with new sidewalks, a shared-use path, turn lanes and signals. Across all 61 contracts on the letting, sealed estimates total about $881 million.

For subs and suppliers

TxDOT does not require subcontractors to prequalify, but primes on federally funded work often need certified DBE participation. Firms certified through the Texas Unified Certification Program can find primes on the contract's plan-holder list. Our Denton County hub lists the TxDOT-qualified bidders and TDLR-licensed specialty contractors based in the county.

Estimates are not bids. We will report results after TxDOT publishes its bid tabulations.

Federal and environmental details

The record carries federal project number CM 2027(057), so federal-aid contract requirements apply. Its environmental clearance type is an environmental assessment (EA), and the data shows the project cleared to let on Jan. 16, 2025. TxDOT lists the oversight category as "Texas Division Involved Project (TxDIP)." The proposal uses TxDOT's 2024 specification book, and the project sits in the 2027 transportation improvement program year.

The neighboring SH 5 contract in Collin County (11263202) also carries a federal number, CM 2027(056), and an EA clearance. Its record lists Anna as the city and runs from north of the Collin County Outer Loop to FM 455, with a transition north of Hackberry Drive.

What the scope means for trades

• ITS and signals: fiber, conduit, cameras and signal work are usually subcontracted to specialty electrical firms.
• Shared-use path and sidewalks: flatwork and ADA ramp packages suited to concrete subs.
• Frontage-road conversion: long runs of paving, drainage and phased traffic control over the 1,001 working days.

The rest of the Dallas District list

TxDOT's data lists four Dallas District contracts on the November statewide letting, with sealed estimates totaling about $189.2 million. The I-35 widening and the SH 5 job make up all but about $4.9 million of that. The other two are traffic signal improvements on FM 544 in Collin County, estimated at about $3.5 million, and flexible pavement structure repair on I-45 in Ellis County, at about $1.4 million.

The district also has eight smaller contracts scheduled for a local district letting on Nov. 12, with estimates totaling about $4.5 million. They include bridge scour repair on I-35W in Denton County, concrete spall repair on US 75 in Collin County and concrete barrier repair on I-45 in Navarro County.

Bid results will appear on TxDOT's bid tabulations after the letting. We will post the apparent low bidder and the spread between bids and the estimate.