Dallas Area Rapid Transit approved a $783 million contract for Archer Western Herzog JV to design and build the Cotton Belt commuter rail line with assistance from lead designer Jacobs Engineering.

The 26-mile line will stretch across North Texas from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to Plano, and it will connect northern areas of Tarrant, Dallas, and Collin counties.

Archer Western Herzog JV is composed of Irving-based Archer Western Construction and Fort Worth-based Herzog Contracting Corp.

Cotton Belt includes 10 total stations as well as interchanges with the DART light rail Orange, Green, and Red lines; the TEXRail commuter line to Fort Worth; and local bus services. Stations will be located in Dallas, Carrollton, Addison, Richardson, and Plano.

In addition to numerous past DART projects, Archer Western and Herzog are delivering transportation infrastructure in tandem across the Dallas/Fort Worth region. The companies are in the final stages of constructing TEXRail, a new 27-mile commuter rail project for Trinity Metro extending from downtown Fort Worth into Terminal B at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Archer Western is also completing a separate contract for the new DFW Terminal B station, the terminus for TEXRail.

Construction on the Cotton Belt line will begin in 2019 with project completion anticipated in 2022.