State transportation officials approved an $800 million contract for Dallas’ mixmaster yesterday, a move the Morning News calls “sure to be painful.” That includes improvements to both I-35 and I-30, with one stretch of road expanding to jaw-hanging 23 lanes.
The story went on to quote state DOT commissioner Bill Meadows:Â “The end result is something that Dallas is going to be proud of … And it also will facilitate traffic and ease congestion on the roadway.”
The Dallas Business Journal cited a statement from the DOT:
“This is a major advancement for our great state as we move forward with the essential steps to enhance mobility for motorists in the downtown Dallas Mixmaster,” Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ted Houghton said in a release. “Cooperation and coordination among our partners, such as state legislators, regional and city leaders, and TxDOT led to the vision, advanced planning, funding and expected delivery of this much-anticipated Horseshoe Project.”
Jim Schutze at the Observer took a different tack:
We’ve known for a long time that all of this was to be redesigned and rebuilt. That’s not my reality check. The reality check is this: They are going to do all of it without building the Trinity River Toll Road as a so-called “reliever route” or detour.
Remember? That was the line. Oh, we can’t possibly take on a huge project like rebuilding the existing freeways downtown until we have the Trinity River Toll Road to act as a detour for all the misplaced traffic.
That was always utter bullsh*t. You don’t build an entire new freeway to act as a construction detour for another freeway. That’s just crazy talk. If you need detour, you make a detour. Not a freeway.
My takeaway? There’s going to be a lot more cut-through traffic in Oak Cliff.
