Another significant change to Texas transportation law was enacted in 2003 and permitted TxDOT to engage the private sector to finance, design, construct, operate, and maintain a toll road project on a public-private partnership (P3) basis. This approach would allow final design, right-of-way acquisition and construction to take place concurrently, with access to private sector financing helping to accelerate the delivery of the project.
Following the state legislature's authorization of P3 projects in Texas, private investors began to assess project development possibilities in the state. In March 2004, TxDOT received an unsolicited proposal from a private developer to reconstruct and expand the entire I-820 and SH 121/SH 183 corridor, from I-35W in Fort Worth to I-35E in Dallas County, adding tolled managed lanes. This prompted TxDOT to begin a formal process to solicit competing offers, but the department ultimately canceled the process in early 2006. Nonetheless, the seed was planted that this corridor, and potentially others in the Fort Worth region including I-35W, could be developed on a P3 basis.