Merritt Road Is Funded at Both Ends. What Still Has to Happen Before Construction Starts?

The two road projects planned near Aria already have their money. Sachse's widening of Merritt Road north of Pleasant Valley Road is funded for construction, and more than two-thirds of its roughly $42 million cost comes from federal and county dollars. Rowlett's Merritt Road Interconnector, east of the President George Bush Turnpike, is a $29.2 million project that the City of Rowlett calls funded, with design underway.

So the open question for anyone living near Merritt, Pleasant Valley and the Turnpike is when work starts. Neither city has set a date. Each project is waiting on a short list of steps, and those steps are public. For the Sachse project, the main one is nine utility companies relocating their lines out of the road's path.

Two projects, two cities, one road

Merritt Road is getting work from two directions, and two different cities are running it.

The Sachse figures come from the city's May 2026 project fact sheet. The Rowlett figures come from the city's July 1 statement on the Interconnector and TxDOT's public meeting page. Rowlett's status line comes from its July 7 State of the City address, which said the Interconnector "is now in final engineering."

What the Sachse widening changes on an ordinary drive

North of Pleasant Valley, the plan rebuilds Merritt as two lanes in each direction. Each side gets a 12-foot inside lane and a 14-foot outside lane shared by bikes and cars. The city also plans a hike/bike trail along the west side. About 0.2 miles of Merritt would be realigned to connect directly with Woodbridge Parkway, with a new traffic signal at Sachse Road. At the May 4, 2026 council briefing, the project was described as having two signalized intersections, at Hudson Drive and at Sachse Road.

The plan also raises the road at its low points. That ends the temporary closures that have shut parts of Merritt during bad weather.

The fact sheet also answers some questions that will matter once the road is finished:

• Noise walls. The city's traffic noise analysis found barriers were not feasible or reasonable, so none will be built.
• Turning across the median. There isn't room for a median break at every residential driveway. Residential streets and city infrastructure get first priority, and extra openings were added for emergency response and to make U-turns easier. The final locations will be decided as the project moves forward.
• Land. Right-of-way acquisition was completed in December 2024.

Construction is estimated to begin in the first quarter of 2027 and take about two years. That's the date most people have heard. The date is set by the steps below.

What still has to happen before Sachse can take bids

The newest post on the city's Moving Merritt updates page is the May 2026 Update, posted 7/15/26. It summarizes the May 4 council discussion. It reads as a checklist, and several items depend on agencies outside City Hall:

1. Utility relocations. There are nine franchise utilities in the corridor and 80 conflicts between their lines and the planned design. City staff and the design firm, Halff, have worked with Dallas County Public Works to raise the project's priority with the utility companies, and they attend monthly coordination meetings to keep the relocations moving.
2. TxDOT sign-off. Final plans went to TxDOT for review in January 2026, and Halff has addressed TxDOT's remaining comments. The final plans, specifications and supporting documents will be released to TxDOT only after the utility relocations are done.
3. Federal reviews. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reviewing the project's 404 permit. Coordination with FEMA on a Conditional Letter of Map Revision is ongoing, and that step was affected by the DHS shutdown. USDA has approved the plans, pending final TxDOT approval.
4. A letting date. Staff will coordinate with TxDOT to set the date the project is advertised and bid. Staff will also work with TxDOT, NCTCOG and Dallas County on funding agreements and reimbursements.

The order of these steps matters. The update says TxDOT expects all utilities to be clear before it authorizes advertising the project. So the 80 utility conflicts come first, and the bid date comes after them. The first quarter of 2027 starts about two months after this post goes up. Until Sachse announces a letting date, that estimate depends on the steps above being finished.

East of the Turnpike, a road that doesn't exist yet

Rowlett's project builds a new road, not a wider one. The Interconnector would extend Merritt from just east of the PGBT intersection to the corner of Chiesa Road and Liberty Grove Road. The city says it closes a gap in the road network. The city also says the connection supports the Lakeview Business District, which it calls "a significant economic engine for this community beyond the hospital district."

The feature people are most likely to remember is the bridge. The road crosses a floodplain, so it would be elevated, including a 500-foot bridge over Muddy Creek. Rowlett's statement says the bridge includes "a pedestrian overlook at its midpoint, designed as an observation point above the creek." There would be shared-use paths on both sides of the new road. Together with the trail planned for Sachse's stretch, that would give the Merritt corridor walking and biking space on both sides of the Turnpike.

The project has drawn public debate. In its July 1 statement, the City of Rowlett said it was aware of a resident petition and listed the concerns raised: wildlife habitat, traffic, neighborhood character, infrastructure capacity, and impacts on wetlands and the floodplain. The city's response opened with this:

"The City does not intend to abandon the Merritt Road Interconnector. This project has been part of the City's Capital Improvement Program since 2015. It is funded. Its design is underway."

That statement also says the project's wetland and floodplain crossing is why it is going through federal environmental review before construction can begin. The funding comes from Rowlett's voter-approved general obligation bonds from 2015 to 2024, Dallas County's Major Capital Improvement Program, and a Surface Transportation Block Grant administered by TxDOT through the Regional Transportation Council. No residential or commercial structures are expected to be displaced.

Rowlett and TxDOT held the public meeting on July 8, 2026, at the Rowlett Community Centre on Main Street, and the comment period closed July 23. According to TxDOT, the responses to those comments will be posted on Rowlett's Public Bulletin Board "once they have been prepared." The same notice says the tentative schedule for right-of-way acquisition and construction is available from the City of Rowlett at 972-463-3943.

How to tell when the cones are coming

Both projects are funded, and both have a public set of steps left before construction. For Aria, that's more useful than a single date. A few updates will tell you work is getting close:

• For Sachse, look for a new post on movingmerrit.com reporting that the utility relocations are finished or that TxDOT has set a letting date. Bidding can't happen until the utilities are clear.
• For Rowlett, look for the comment responses on the city's bulletin board and any published construction schedule. As of July, the Interconnector was in final engineering with no construction start announced.
• Questions: Sachse's fact sheet says final median opening locations will be decided as the project moves forward, so check those updates if your daily route includes a left turn onto Merritt. For Rowlett's piece, TxDOT's notice lists the city's project line, 972-463-3934, for questions and project materials.

Once Sachse's construction starts, the city estimates about two years of work on the stretch north of Pleasant Valley. When it's done, that stretch will have four lanes, a trail on the west side, a direct connection to Woodbridge Parkway and raised low points so the road no longer has to close at those spots.

If you're near Merritt Road and wondering how two years of construction might affect your street, your commute or a sale you're planning, Jeanie Marten keeps track of these projects as closely as anyone in south Sachse. Call Jeanie, and we'll go over what's planned near you and what timing makes sense for your next move.