Residents of central Dallas who celebrated the “death” of the controversial Trinity Parkway with a mock New Orleans style funeral are still wary.  The controversial proposed $1.5 billion toll road would have created a major highway between the Trinity River levees running through central Dallas. The toll road had been planned as a 9-mile road which would connect Interstate 45 and State Highway 183.  The road was planned as part of the Trinity River Corridor Project, which aims to create a large urban park with lakes, recreational areas and trails in the now largely vacant space between the levees.  The road has been approved by Dallas voters twice; first in a 1998 bond package for the larger corridor project and again in a 2007 election that unsuccessfully sought to block its construction.

Opponents have questioned the wisdom of the first ever freeway to be built inside of a river levee as well as the impact on the planned parks and existing wildlife along the banks of the channelized river. And the list of opponents seems to be growing.   But Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow is arguing for Dallas to keep the toll road on the table.  Blow believes that the river can accommodate both recreation and transportation.

“I especially urge anyone wrestling with this question to get down between the levees and get a feel for how vast that space is. I was there a few weeks ago and was struck again by the size. It’s so enormous that you could easily enjoy a soccer game, a picnic or a bike ride on the west side of the river and barely even know that a major roadway was way over on the east side. Above all, let’s do the sensible thing and simply keep our options open. Let’s see what the final plan brings. Let’s hear from anyone with better fixes to our transportation bottleneck.”