Monticello's Pipe Work Turns Onto West 4th This Month. Here's the Street-by-Street Calendar Through 2027

The city's water and sewer project in Monticello is about to reach the streets most people drive every day. The new water main on Lenox Drive is in service, Hamilton Avenue is being switched over to its new line, and late October brings the contractor to West 4th Street between Monticello Drive and Bailey Avenue, with work there scheduled through December.

A trench being filled back in doesn't mean your street is done. In Fort Worth Water's own sequence, the pipe goes in first. Then each home's service is moved to the new line. Then curbs, gutters and driveways get repaired. Repaving comes last, and it covers only the stretch where pipe was laid. The interior blocks that were dug up this spring are now somewhere in the middle of that order. The corridor streets haven't been touched yet. The city expects every part of the project to be finished in mid-2028.

Why Lenox and Hamilton Went First

The project is officially the Monticello, Linwood and Westside Area Water and Sewer Improvements, city project number 103419. It is valued at $1,879,680. The work area runs from White Settlement Road on the north to Carroll Street on the east, West 5th Street on the south and Virginia Place on the west. Four neighborhood groups fall inside it: the Monticello Neighborhood Association, the Linwood Neighborhood Association, the West 7th Neighborhood Alliance and the Westside Alliance.

The reason is old pipe. At the March 23, 2026 community meeting at the UNT Health Science Center on Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth Water said the city ranks replacements by main-break history, leak history, camera inspections, pipe age and material, and whether lead service lines are present. This project came out of the city's cast iron pipe initiative. To cut down on frequent main breaks, Fort Worth Water has committed to replacing at least 20 miles of cast iron pipe a year. Five of those segments are in Monticello: West 4th Street, West 5th Street, Virginia Place, Lenox Drive and Hamilton Avenue.

The contractor is Woody Contractors, and MAS Consultants is the consultant. Work officially started on March 30, 2026, on Hamilton, Potomac and Lenox. That start explains why the blocks around Dorothy Lane have had trenches since spring while West 5th Street is only now getting its temporary water line.

Where Each Street Stood at the September Update

The city's latest project update, dated September 16, 2026, sorts the work like this.

Finished underground

• Lenox Drive from Dorothy Lane to Potomac Avenue: the new water main is in service.
• Lenox Drive between Monticello Drive and Hamilton Avenue: the sewer main is installed.
• The easement between Lenox Drive and West 4th Street from Dorothy Lane to Virginia Place: the sewer pipe is enlarged and homes are connected to it.

Switching homes over

• Hamilton Avenue from Virginia Place to Monticello Drive: the water main is installed and tested, and homes are being moved to it.
• Hamilton Avenue from Lenox Drive to Monticello Drive, and Potomac Avenue between Lenox Drive and West 4th Street: the sewer lines are in and homes are being rerouted to them.

Still digging

• Virginia Place from Monticello Drive to Potomac Avenue: the water line is going in.
• The easement between Monticello Drive and Hamilton Avenue from Virginia Place to Dorothy Lane: the sewer line is going in.
• West 5th Street from Monticello Drive to Arch Adams Street: the contractor is laying a temporary water line. The new main goes in once every home is on the temporary line. The city expects this segment to finish in late October.

Monticello Park, at 3505 Dorothy Lane North, sits in the middle of the work area. The project's work list names streets and easements but no work inside the park grounds. The 2022 design materials mention the park's tennis courts only as a landmark for finding your way around the area.

The Calendar From Here

The September update lays out the rest of the utility work. The contractor supplied these dates, and the city says they can move for weather or for unexpected problems such as running into other utilities.

The work moves east. It starts on the residential blocks near Dorothy Lane and Virginia Place, crosses Monticello Drive this fall, and reaches the University Drive and Carroll Street end of the project area during 2027. The last scheduled pipe work, the West 5th Street sewer segment, ends in mid-November 2027, more than a year and a half after the contractor started.

A Filled Trench Is Only the Second of Four Steps

Every street in the project goes through the same four steps, in this order:

1. Pipe in the ground. The new main is laid, and on water segments it is tested before anything else happens.
2. Homes switched over. Each house is moved from the old line to the new one. This is where Hamilton and Potomac stood at the September update.
3. Curbs, gutters and driveways repaired. The city says this happens as each area's water and sewer work wraps up, and it has to be done before any repaving.
4. Street rebuilt. The existing road is ground up from curb to curb, the base underneath is stabilized and compacted, and new asphalt goes on top. Repaving covers only the areas where water or sewer work happened.

The city says rebuilding Potomac Avenue, Lenox Drive, Hamilton Avenue and Virginia Place is "scheduled to begin in February." The page doesn't give a year. Based on when the update was posted and the 2027 dates around it, February 2027 is the likely reading, but the city hasn't confirmed it. Four storm drain inlets are also being repaired along with the water and sewer work.

This four-step order is why a block can look finished for months before it gets new asphalt. It also means West 4th and West 5th, the streets whose pipe work runs through most of 2027, will be the last to get to step four. The city puts final completion of the whole project at mid-2028.

The city also keeps a road closures page that lists each closure's start and end points and its start and projected end dates. Several Monticello entries currently show windows that run to April 8, 2028, including Hamilton Avenue from Virginia Place to Monticello Drive, Lenox Drive from Potomac Avenue to Dorothy Lane, and Monticello Drive between Hamilton Avenue and Lenox Drive. Those dates line up with the overall project schedule. They don't match the street-by-street dates in the September update, so check the project page when you want to know what is happening on a particular block.

What the Door Hangers Mean

The process is the same for every street, as laid out at the March community meeting.

• Two door hangers. The first says "Construction Starts in 7 days." The second comes the day before work begins and includes the inspector's contact information.
• Access. You can get to your home at all times.
• Water. Water is shut off only for short periods, with notice ahead of time. Sewer service is never interrupted.
• Parking. On weekdays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., keep vehicles off both sides of a street that is being worked on.
• Lane closures. Lanes may close and detours may go up when new sewer mains are connected at manholes. Message boards and contractor notices go out ahead of time.
• Trash day. The 2022 design-phase FAQ says that if construction blocks one side of a street on collection day, the contractor moves carts to the other side.

The project manager is Clayton Torrance, 817-392-8528 or [email protected]. The inspector is Michael Barron, 682-210-7047 or [email protected]. To get updates, type 103419 into the search bar on the city's website.

West 4th Work Overlaps a Busy Season Next Door

The West 4th segment starts just as the Cultural District's fall schedule fills up. The Kimbell's first photography exhibition, "Photography's First Century," opened October 4 and runs through January 17, 2027, with more than 170 images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France. At Will Rogers Memorial Center, the Christmas in Cowtown Gift Market runs October 7 through 11, John Mulaney plays the Auditorium on October 9, and the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity runs October 9 through 24. The Modern opens "In the Making: Stories from the Collection" on October 31, and it stays up through August 15, 2027.

Most of October's events come before the West 4th work is scheduled to begin, and the West 5th segment from Monticello Drive to Arch Adams is due to finish in late October. In November and December, crews will be on West 4th between Monticello Drive and Bailey Avenue while the Kimbell show is still up and Will Rogers moves into its holiday calendar, including Funky Finds on November 21 and 22 and A Vienna Light Orchestra Christmas on November 28. Before a weekend outing, check the closures page to see which lanes are open on that stretch. For what's opened nearby since summer, our roundup of three July openings in Monticello's walking radius is still a good guide.

If your street is between steps two and four and you're thinking about listing, a buyer will see an unfinished street but won't know where it is in the city's sequence. John Zimmerman and our team follow the Monticello project block by block, so we can tell you where your street stands and when its repaving is scheduled. Work With Us to plan your timing.