Lake Ralph Hall Reaches New Construction Landmark

Bridges over Lake Ralph Hall — a future reservoir that will provide water for part of North Texas, including Denton County — is now open to traffic.

Last month, Upper Trinity Regional Water District celebrated the completion of the Hwy 34 bridges over the North Sulphur River and Merrill Creek, according to a district news release. The new, 1.1-mile-long North Sulphur River bridge near Ladonia includes a special walkway for pedestrians and bicyclists. In addition to that main bridge and the much shorter Merrill Creek Bridge, Upper Trinity and its contractors rerouted a section of FM 1550 to accommodate the new lake’s shoreline.

“This is a significant landmark in the construction of Lake Ralph Hall,” said Larry Patterson, Upper Trinity’s Executive Director. “We are incredibly grateful for the support and collaboration of all who have been involved—especially Flatiron Construction, who built these bridges over the last two years.”

The bridges opened to traffic on Monday.

Lake Ralph Hall will be a 7,600-acre reservoir in southeast Fannin County. It is expected to be completed in 2025 and be delivering water by 2026 to the Upper Trinity Regional Water District and member communities. It will be one of the state’s biggest reservoir projects in nearly 30 years, according to a water district news release. Located on the North Sulphur River in Fannin County just north of the city of Ladonia, Lake Ralph Hall will provide an additional 35 million gallons daily of water and 19 MGD of reuse water for the residents of Denton, Collin and Fannin counties. UTRWD currently serves more than 29 cities, towns and utilities supplying drinking water to close to 300,000 customers.

Massive Pipeline Provides Water From Three Lakes to North Texas Area

The 150-mile, $2.3 billion Integrated Pipeline project, or IPL, is a joint water supply project between Dallas Water Utilities and the Tarrant Regional Water District. After more than a decade of design and construction, the joint section of the IPL is now operational as of May 2022. The pipeline connects to existing water supplies in East Texas and adds significant water supply capacity to the regional water system.

A lot of planning and a little serendipity went into making the IPL a reality. Turns out DWU and TRWD each had separate plans to bring water from East Texas into the Metroplex. And both entities were in the process of developing their plans when they realized that they had similar timelines and that their respective projects would be built in roughly the same locations. So, instead of building two pipelines, DWU and TRWD decided to build one joint pipeline. The move saves taxpayers more than a billion dollars in capital and energy costs over the life of the project.

For more information, see this recent TRWD news item or see a recent Texas Water Development Board video here.

Texas Water Development Board Approves 2021 Region C Water Plan

On January 19, 2021, the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) approved the adopted 2021 Regional Water Plan submitted by Region C, providing recommended water management strategies for the North Central Texas region’s water supply through 2070.