LAKE DALLAS — City officials already are seeing positive signs from the soon-to-open and long-awaited Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge.

A defunct business just off Interstate 35E will reopen as a convenience store next month. That one change will net Lake Dallas significant sales tax increases, officials say.

DRC/Al Key

The Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge takes shape as it nears completion last week in Denton County. The bridge is expected to open in August.

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“We’ve already seen some benefit, because where we had a hand car wash at Swisher [Road] and the railroad tracks, we’re now getting a QuikTrip to open in early August,” said Lake Dallas City Manager Earl Berner. “Revenue goes from negligible to $40,000 to $55,000 a year.”

The $122 million bridge, expected to open in August, will be a four-lane, 1.7-mile stretch across Lewisville Lake connecting Swisher Road in Lake Dallas to Eldorado Parkway near Lakewood Village in Denton County. The entire 13.8-mile project, started Jan. 31, 2007, is expected to cost $220 million, said North Texas Tollway Authority officials.

The average cost per one-way trip across the bridge will be about $1 with a TollTag or $1.45 without a tag, officials said.

About 20 acres of property owned by the Lake Dallas Economic Development Corporation at the end of the bridge and a 40-acre farm west of the bridge are two areas officials hope will see commercial development from the increased traffic, Berner said.

Lake Dallas officials also hope property once used by the school district for an elementary school at Swisher and Shady Shores roads will be rezoned commercial, he said.

The toll bridge, once complete, is expected to bring an additional 45,000 cars a day through Lake Dallas from Swisher Road, across several major Lake Dallas roads on the east side, to I-35E, a main thoroughfare through Denton County.

“We’re also hoping we can get some of this traffic to come into downtown and hopefully help us revitalize it,” Berner said.

The economic development corporation has plans to connect Lakeview Drive in the city to Swisher Road just west of where the bridge starts by late August to open a corridor into the older downtown area.

The bridge could be a boon for motorists as well as the surrounding cities and counties, tollway authority officials say.

“We’re really excited. This will give us a stronger tie to one of our member counties, Denton County, and also benefit motorists in the region,” said Sherita Coffelt, public information officer for the tollway authority.

Examples of possible benefits are how the bridge could cut the time of a trip from east Denton County to Dallas in half, save 16 miles of travel and about a gallon of gasoline, Coffelt said.

The tollway authority has been working with Denton County, the Texas Department of Transportation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the cities of Little Elm, Frisco and Lake Dallas to develop the new east-west transportation corridor that stretches across 13.8 miles and is divided into eight sections — each with a differenttimeline for completion.

County Commissioner Hugh Coleman said he hopes the bridge brings economic development to the smaller cities.

“It will be good to get more commercial development in those areas that are primarily residential,” he said. “I’d like to see some commercial to take the load off taxpayers and generate some additional revenue for taxing purposes.”

Coleman added that he had a few safety concerns with the bridge’s impending opening, saying that he wished more planning had occurred on the east side to account for the expected boost in traffic.

The planning happened before he took office, Coleman said.

The toll bridge could ease traffic for area residents as well as those in neighboring counties or people traveling cross country, Coffelt said.

“Any time you can relieve such an important freeway such as [Interstate] 35[E], that is going to mean a great deal for motorists who choose to take the bridge and for those who don’t,” she said.

BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is blewis@dentonrc.com .