Advocates presented a compelling case to remove the aging stretch of Interstate 345 that bisects Dallas adjacent to downtown. But state transportation officials have decided to rehab, rather than remove, the freeway.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has taken a final stand on its plans to rehab I-345 along a 1.7 mile stretch in downtown Dallas. The target for completion of the project, according to an article by Robert Wilonsky, is 2020.
The decision came down to money and traffic. On the former: “TxDOT told the city it will cost $100 million to rehab the bridge, as opposed to the $1 billion it says it would cost to take it down and replace it with, say, a tunnel or some other car-moving option.” And on the latter: “Where do those 170,000 to 200,000 cars per day go?”
The rehab, however, is a band aid solution, allowing the elevated freeway to survive another 20-25 years. In the meantime, proposed park developments wait until the I-345 project is complete and a vision that starts with tearing down the freeway will have to wait.
FULL STORY: TxDOT tells Dallas it will repair and not remove the highway separating Deep Ellum and downtown
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Rather than removing the freeway altogether, which the Texas Department of Transportation calls ‘unfeasible,’ the agency recommends burying the road in a billion-dollar, ten-lane trench through the city’s downtown.
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Freeways have been removed before, but if the Texas Department of Transportation decides to tear down the I-345 freeway in Dallas, it would reflect a massive sea change in urban transportation planning.
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