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Trinity River Project News
Archive
We want you to have the best information to make an
informed decision about this important issue to Dallas.
We're confident that when you know all the facts, you will
support our effort to let voters decide whether to prohibit a
toll road from being built in the Downtown Trinity Park.
We've compiled the following news articles that shed light on
this issue:
Kirk urges patience on Trinity projects
The Dallas Morning News (May 13, 1998)
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People who pay money to
drive on a road want to go fast. That fact could play a
big role in shaping the Trinity Parkway, a proposed
10-mile toll road that would stretch from State Highway
183 to U.S. 175.
Officials have proposed posting a 45-mph speed limit and
banning trucks on the new road. They also have promised
that the highway will have plenty of on- and offramps
leading to parks along the river and nearby commercial
areas.
But the city's goal of building a quiet parkway instead
of a noisy freeway could clash with the financial
reality of toll roads.The tollway authority,
which plans to pay off its construction loans with the
road's income, could have trouble raising enough money
unless the toll road's speed limit is 60 mph, Mr.
Jackson said.
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Toll road report says speed
limit may affect funds, urges 55 mph or more
The Dallas Morning News
(September 17, 1998)
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State planners and
community leaders originally envisioned the Trinity
Parkway as a free-access roadway with a 45-mph speed
limit. But the City Council has endorsed a plan to make
the Trinity Parkway a toll road, which would enable the
project to get quicker funding and to be completed in
eight years rather than 13. A proposed toll
road along the Trinity River faces a sizable funding gap
unless motorists are allowed to drive at least 55 mph, a
traffic study outlined to the Dallas City Council on
Wednesday concluded.
The report also determined that the shortfall would top
$250 million if the Trinity Parkway had exits leading
directly to proposed parks and lakes along the river.
The study dampens some city leaders' hopes that the
project would be feasible as a 45-mph road with easy
access to the lakes, features they expect would make the
Trinity Parkway more of a boulevard than a freeway.
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Corps questions
proximity of roads, parks in Trinity plan
The Dallas Morning News
(February 27, 2000)
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When the roadway bond
proposal was put to voters in 1998, the parkway was to
be a 45-mph road with left-turn lanes allowing motorists
to exit directly into the park.
But the state, which was to foot most of the highway
bill, said it couldn't tackle the project for at least a
decade. So the city asked the tollway authority to
consider building the road as a tollway.
A few months later, the tollway agency gave its answer:
The road might generate enough revenue to justify
building it, but only if the speed limit was 55 or 60
mph. At 45 mph, analysts said, the time a motorist would
save by avoiding Stemmons would be negligible, meaning
few would choose to pay the toll.
Thus, a low-speed parkway became a high-speed,
limited-access highway with freeway-style entrance and
exit ramps. Motorists could look down into the park but
could not exit directly into it.
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A Trinity tollway may inhibit development, consultant
says
The Dallas Morning News (June 17, 2001)
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To get the biggest bang
for its buck in the Trinity River corridor, Dallas would
have been better off to stick with its original vision
of a low-speed parkway along the levees rather than the
high-speed tollway now being studied, a consultant hired
to consider the project's economic impact said Saturday.
"A true parkway probably would have the optimum
beneficial impact on adjacent land values," Patrick
Phillips of Economic Research Associates said during a
community workshop on the city's Trinity plan.
The switch from parkway to tollway was an attempt to
speed the road's construction by making it a project of
the North Texas Tollway Authority. The tollway agency
determined that the road would not generate enough money
to pay for itself unless it was a high-speed,
limited-access highway similar to other regional toll
roads.
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Consultants say
most plans for Trinity Tollway won’t help economy
The Dallas Morning News (May 26, 2002)
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The proposed Trinity
toll road is not likely to spur significant economic
development in downtown, Oak Cliff or most areas up- or
downstream, according to a study commissioned by the
Dallas City Council.
The city's planned lake can unleash a development surge
- with or without the road - the study suggests.
Urban planner Mark Bowers, who heads the HNTB team,
said "The park is where the maximum benefit comes."
Under any scenario, the poor, predominantly black
and Hispanic neighborhoods of Rochester Park, Cadillac
Heights and Joppa can expect no noticeable economic
boost, the study suggests.
"The tollway has no economic implications" in those
neighborhoods, said HNTB analyst Rick Leisner.
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