Big news from Brandon Formby at the DMN this afternoon:
Dallas’ planned Trinity Parkway cannot be built significantly different than the massive, high-speed toll road submitted for federal approval unless city officials delay the project up to two years or start over altogether, according to federal officials.
Federal Highway Administration officials this week told State Rep. Rafael Anchia that if the agency gives the go ahead for construction of the mostly six-lane road awaiting clearance, “that is the only project that can be built using our environmental approval.”
I just turned around and told Tim this: “Of course! That’s what we all thought!”
What this means, of course, is that Michael Morris, Mary Suhm, and Craig Holcomb’s “we can always make a smaller road, and that’s what we plan to do” argument is complete garbage, and likely always has been. Because why wouldn’t it be complete garbage? If the environmental impact was going to be different for two DIFFERENT projects, you’d need two DIFFERENT approvals.
Kudos to Brandon for getting this. It’s huge.
