DALLAS, TX — Long portions of steel rails were delivered to Addison, Texas, along the Silver Line, a sure sign that construction on Dallas Area Rapid Transit's (DART) $2-billion project is underway.

Manufactured by Steel Dynamics, Inc. (SDI) in Columbia City, Indiana, the rail traveled 1,100 miles to its new home in North Texas by special train.

The rails arrived to a spot between Marsh Lane and Midway Road as part of an overall shipment of 50 rail segments, each spanning about 1,600 feet long, or slightly longer than five football fields.

Preparation for the entire 26-mile Silver Line has been underway since early 2019 to link Plano to DFW Airport. The anticipated completion is 2022.

The corridor traverses Grapevine, Coppell, Dallas, Carrollton, Addison, Richardson, and Plano, where workers have been surveying, staking, identifying, and relocating utilities, doing geotechnical investigations, acquiring soil samples, preparing design work, and coordinating with cities on Quiet Zones and Hike & Bike Trails.

The new line will provide DART passenger rail connections and service in the northern part of their service area, improve mobility, accessibility, and system linkages to major employment, population, and activity centers, and interface with DART's three light-rail lines: The Red/Orange Lines in Richardson/Plano, the Green Line in Carrollton, and the Orange Line at DFW Airport. At DFW Airport, customers will connect to Trinity Metro's TEXRail Regional Rail Line to Fort Worth.

The Silver Line Project along the Cotton Belt Corridor has been included in various DART and North Central Texas Council of Governments planning documents since 1983. DART purchased 52 miles of the Cotton Belt Corridor in 1990 to preserve for future regional rail service the stretch from Wylie, Texas, to north Fort Worth.