Dallas City Council to Vote on Controversial Freeway Trenching Plan

The transportation director of the North Central Texas Council of Governments is asking the Dallas City Council to support a plan to bury a segment of Interstate 345 in what Strong Towns recently called an ‘infrastructure grave,’ “which would allow traffic to flow and development to come on decks over the roadway and on surplus right of way.” Critics of the plan say removing the freeway altogether is the best way to begin redressing the damage that the roadway originally caused to surrounding neighborhoods.

As Matt Goodman explains in D Magazine, “The trench would maintain the highway’s present ties to Central Expressway, Woodall Rodgers, and interstates 30 and 45. But it would also create a huge chasm between downtown and Deep Ellum, which makes some on the City Council nervous,” particularly as neither TxDOT nor the city have a plan for funding decking over the trench that could hold future development such as parks or housing. TxDOT insists a proposed plan to replace the freeway with a boulevard would create too much congestion and does not plan to continue studying the boulevard proposal.

The article details the city’s recent growth patterns and the role of I-345 in connecting the southern and northern parts of Dallas, as well as the decade-long debate over how to redesign the aging freeway. According to Goodman, the city council will vote on a resolution to support the trenching project on May 24, which could speed up or delay the project depending on the outcome.