Improving highway mobility: a story told through a trip along the Express Lanes

Did you know that our bodies are made up of almost 100,000 kilometers of blood vessels? There are so many of them, that if you strung them all together in a straight line, they would do two full laps around the globe. These blood vessels transport nutrients and oxygen to our organs, supplying us with the resources we need to survive.

In a way, the blood vessels are like tiny highways. And our actual highways shape a similar system; a network of routes transporting everyday goods and connecting towns, cities and people. Crucially, just like inside our bodies, the system needs to function well to survive and thrive.

So, how can we guarantee safe, efficient and sustainable mobility on highways? Episode 23 of the Sounds Like Infrastructure podcast takes us on a trip to the United States, a country that boasts more than 7.5 million kilometers of highways, used by millions of citizens every day. A complex network of infrastructures has been created to get to this astonishing point, and Ferrovial itself has left its mark on the impressive network.

The roads that transformed Texas

We’re heading to the United States, destination Texas. Today, five of the country’s most populous cities stand on this state’s turf, but a little over a century ago the landscape was almost unrecognizable. Small rural communities were connected by dirt tracks—some so narrow that even carts would struggle to get through.

But along came industrialization, and it changed everything. Roads began to spread throughout the land, connecting cities that were growing thanks to their new-found influence. One of the regions that saw the starkest transformation was Texas: specifically, the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. These two cities were completely independent of each other just a century ago, but today, they form one large metroplex. In other words, a sprawling urban system that extends beyond our concept of a city. It’s more like two cities in one.

Fort Worth is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States in recent years. In just 2023, 20,000 new residents came to the city. But such rapid growth inevitably brings a degree of imbalance. Let’s think about roads for example: more inhabitants mean more traffic, and in the absence of solutions, that means more congestion. Which is where Ferrovial comes into play, in a quest for solutions.

Meet the Express Lanes: tackling congestion in Dallas-Fort Worth

The Ferrovial team came up with a real-time solution that reduces congestion and traffic jams in the Dallas-Fort Worth corridor, despite the rapid increase in traffic: the Express Lanes. Basically, the system added additional lanes alongside a means of calculating how many users it can accommodate based on highway and traffic conditions.

Drawing on incredibly accurate data, the system makes informed decisions every five minutes, establishing a price that can adjust demand according to capacity. This results in a safe and reliable user experience.

“Incorporating toll lanes, or Express Lanes, has contributed to more fluid traffic flows. They have been, and continue to be, a key factor in responding to the region’s transport needs”, explains José Espinosa, CEO of TEXpress Lanes for Cintra, a Ferrovial highway subsidiary.

The TEXpress Lanes (the Texas Express Lanes) include the LBJ Express, North Tarrant Express and the NTE 35W, and they make up a network of highways running through the entire metropolitan area. The network comes with its own challenges in terms of both efficiency and the use of technology.

“For us, every second counts—everything has to be functioning well. We want the user experience to be as fluid, safe, relaxed and reliable as possible”, Espinosa explains. “No matter what happens, our systems need to be ready for it, ensuring we can communicate any alerts to users, whether due to sudden, unforeseen weather conditions approaching, an incident of some sort on the network, or even strange objects obstructing the roads”.

According to Cintra’s TEXpress Lanes CEO, these difficulties are all overcome thanks to the implementation of new technologies alongside the Dallas-Fort Worth concessions team’s professionalism and knowledge.

Sustainability, safety and community links

Working efficiently and sustainably is another major challenge when it comes to managing such an expansive road network. “For us, sustainability rests on striking a balance between three fundamental pillars: protecting the environment, improving the quality of life of communities in our areas of operation, and investing, developing and operating highway projects that promote economic growth in the region”, says María Chávez, Sustainability Manager at Ferrovial.

Ferrovial has set its target for 100% of its portfolio operations to be working with renewable energies by 2025. The company is making major inroads to achieve this in infrastructures like the North Tarrant Express highway in Texas.

“It was the first move we made in this regard. Back in 2019 it implemented the use of 100% renewable energy. And now, in the latest expansion of the highway, solar panels have been installed to support energy needs, reducing our dependence on the electricity network and making operations more resilient”, explains Chávez.

Some improvements blend energy efficiency with safety. A recent example is the installation of extra-tall road lighting using LED bulbs, reducing our environmental impact and in turn enhancing visibility for drivers.

Meanwhile, Ferrovial is forging links with communities through its highways construction and management. “We’re investing in the future of this highway, and that means we’ll be members of this community for the next 50 or 60 years”, adds Chávez.

“That’s why it’s absolutely essential to be good neighbors. This often means opening lines of communication right from the planning stage and throughout operations, and finding useful ways to invest in communities; volunteering or partnerships with schools on STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math), road safety, food banks, health and wellbeing”, explains Ferrovial’s Sustainability Manager.

In fact, the relationship between Texans and their Express Lanes began before they were even in use. The company wanted the people to baptize these routes, and launched a project to come up with the best name. Ferrovial received more than 5000 proposals, and one stuck: TEXpress, joining the words Texas and Express.

The management of Ferrovial’s Express Lanes in Texas is a true success story, resulting in improvements in traffic management, investment in educational programs and a long list of actions and objectives achieved. In fact, so much so that other cities in the country are now looking at implementing the same systems in order to achieve their own improvements.