The Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge (LLTB) is a 1.7 mile (2.7 km)

tied arch bridge A tied-arch bridge is an arch bridge in which the outward horizontal forces of the arch(es) caused by tension at the arch ends to a foundation are countered by equal tension of its own gravity plus any element of the total deck structure such grea ...

crossing

Lewisville Lake Lewisville Lake, formerly known as Garza-Little Elm Reservoir, is a reservoir in North Texas (USA) on the Elm Fork of the Trinity River in Denton County near Lewisville. Originally engineered in 1927 as Lake Dallas, the reservoir was expanded i ...

Denton County, Texas Denton County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 906,422, making it the 7th-most populous county in Texas. The county seat is Denton. The county, which was named for John B. Denton, was establish ...

, USA. The

North Texas Tollway Authority The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is an organization that maintains and operates toll roads, bridges, and tunnels in the North Texas area. Functioning as a political subdivision of the State of Texas under Chapter 366 of the Transpor ...

(NTTA) worked cooperatively with Denton County to plan and design a toll bridge across the northwestern arm of Lewisville Lake. The four-lane toll bridge connects Swisher Road in Lake Dallas to Eldorado Parkway in

Little Elm, Texas Little Elm is a city in Denton County, Texas, United States, and a part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is an extended suburb of Denton; its population was 46,453 as of the 2020 census. In 2000, the census population was at 3,646. By the ...

. The Lewisville Lake Corridor is approximately 13.8 miles long and is divided into eight sections constructed by Denton County, NTTA, TxDOT, Little Elm, and Frisco, Texas. The bridge is the second longest bridge in the North Texas area, behind the Texas State Highway 66 bridge over

Lake Ray Hubbard Lake Ray Hubbard, formerly Eastern Dallas Lake or Forney Lake, is a freshwater impoundment (reservoir) located in Dallas, Texas in the counties of Dallas, Kaufman, Collin, and Rockwall, just north of the City of Forney. It was created by the co ...

between Rowlett and Rockwall approximately 30 miles to the southeast. Motorists in the fastest growing areas of Denton County and the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex are able to travel on a new connection between Interstate 35E and the

Dallas North Tollway The Dallas North Tollway (DNT, or simply the Tollway) is a controlled-access toll road operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), which runs from Interstate 35E near downtown Dallas, Texas (USA), to U.S. Highway 380, in Frisco, T ...

, eliminating the circuitous (and highly congested) routes currently required around Lewisville Lake (though it now funnels traffic onto I-35E north of the bridge over Lewisville Lake, which itself is a notorious bottleneck). The conceptual design of the project entailed eight sections that, together, total . Only the bridge over the lake is tolled. The bridge is above the normal water level of 522 ft elevation, to allow clearance for sailboats. The "signature" of the bridge, according to the NTTA, is the steel section with arches that rise to above the road deck (which resembles the arches of Austin's

Pennybacker Bridge The Percy V. Pennybacker Jr. Bridge in Austin, Texas, is a through-arch bridge across Lake Austin which connects the northern and southern sections of the Loop 360 highway, also known as the "Capital of Texas Highway." The road is widely consid ...

). The surfaces of this section are lighted with LEDs at night to make the structure visible from the surrounding shores of the lake. The project opened to vehicular traffic on August 1, 2009, after a charity run and walk across the bridge. The NTTA stated that occasion was the only time pedestrians will ever be allowed to cross the bridge. The NTTA funded and constructed the toll bridge while the cities along the corridor,

Denton County Denton County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 906,422, making it the 7th-most populous county in Texas. The county seat is Denton. The county, which was named for John B. Denton, was establis ...

and

Texas Department of Transportation The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT ) is a government agency in the American state of Texas. Though the public face of the agency is generally associated with the construction and maintenance of the state's immense state highway system ...

(TxDOT) funded improvements to the roadways approaching the bridge. The NTTA toll across the bridge section is $1.32 for TollTag customers and $1.98 for ZipCash drivers.

History

A bridge previously connected Little Elm and Lake Dallas, but was removed in the 1950s when the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

expanded

. The old bridge provided a vital transportation link between Lake Dallas and Little Elm.

Project Costs

*Project Cost Estimate: $220 million (entire corridor) *Estimated NTTA Cost: $122 million (toll bridge only)

Key Dates

*May 2005 - The NTTA Board of Directors selected a preliminary design of the bridge, which features a distinctive tied arch spanning at the center with approaches and thresholds flanked by pairs of lighted columns. *Late 2005 - A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Environmental Impact Assessment is received *Early 2006 - Completion of plans, specifications and estimates on the toll bridge and public hearings for sections 4-6 and 8. Design for sections 4-6 initiated. *Spring 2006 - Denton County broke ground on Section 1, west of the bridge, and construction is under way. *Summer 2006 - Construction on Section 3, the eastern approach to the bridge, is planned to begin in late summer 2006. *January 2007 - Groundbreaking for the bridge was held in Denton County on January 31, 2007 *May 2007 - Crews have built and placed many of the rebar frames for the support columns on the west bank and will soon begin pouring concrete into them. *May 2008 - Construction of the bridge reached the halfway point. *January 2009 - All four corner pieces of the arch structure are in place. *April 2009 - The last major rib arch piece was installed. Construction is approximately 90% complete. *August 1, 2009 - Charity run and walk across bridge. Bridge opens to vehicular traffic. *February 28, 2010 - Last portions of the construction work are completed, including work on the arch lighting.

References

External links

North Texas Tollway Authority

Map and Images

Detailed Map (PDF)
A detailed map of the whole project is available as a PDF from the Denton County Commissioner's page.
High-resolution Rendering
A high resolution rendering of the bridge's "gateway" span is available from the Denton County Commissioner's page. {{Toll Roads in Texas Bridges completed in 2009 Toll bridges in Texas Buildings and structures in Denton County, Texas Tied arch bridges in the United States Transportation in Denton County, Texas Road bridges in Texas Concrete bridges in the United States Trestle bridges in the United States