BIG PROBLEM, BIG SOLUTION $1 billion downtown traffic plan faces 1st hurdle The Dallas Morning News July 9, 1997 Author: Chris Kelley; Urban Affairs Writer of The Dallas Morning News Estimated printed pages: 7 Move aside, North Central Expressway. Make way, LBJ. There's a new transportation plan in town - a $1 billion scratch for a 30-year itch. Dallas' downtown freeway system - a daily torment for hundreds of thousands of drivers and one of the nation's 10 worst - may finally be getting fixed. After more than a year of study, a panel of local officials will vote Friday on a package of improvements that engineers say will untangle Dallas' legendary downtown freeway snarls. "This will be like removing a tourniquet from central Dallas," said Dallas County Judge Lee Jackson, chairman of the policy committee recommending the traffic plan. The overdue relief would feature as its centerpiece a congestion-relieving parkway along both banks of the Trinity River that would overlook river-bottom parks, lakes and recreational trails. Also planned is a complete overhaul of the downtown Canyon along Interstate 30, the Mixmaster where I-30 meets I-35E, a new system of high-occupancy-vehicle lanes along downtown freeways and miles of new bicycle and pedestrian trails. The Texas Department of Transportation plan also would extend Woodall Rodgers Freeway across the Trinity River to West Dallas, install a trouble-spotting high-tech traffic surveillance and management system and study a new DART light-rail line to Carrollton. Construction could begin in three to five years and be complete in 2020. Still to be determined: How to pay for the $1 billion, 23-year project, which would involve about twice the cost and time of the reconstruction of Central Expressway. "We have the largest parking lot in the state here," said County Commissioner John Wiley Price, who serves with Mr. Jackson on the committee. "We don't have a choice in this matter. We have to do something to move the traffic. " The proposal, which involves 10 local, state and federal agencies, is the most recent - and some say most important - piece in the transformation of the Trinity River from trench to treasure. The Dallas City Council has already authorized comprehensive flood-control measures for the Trinity project, which Mayor Ron Kirk says is the city's No. 1 priority. But the plan is not without critics - environmentalists who have philosophical objections and some officials who say the plan shortchanges economic development. How the downtown freeway congestion problem developed is easy to explain. Dallas' downtown-centered hub-and-spoke freeway system was built for an era when four out of five cars were headed downtown to jobs. Today, four out of five cars pass through and around downtown Dallas on their way to jobs outside the central business district. With seven major highways converging near one geographic point - downtown - the travel patterns of more than 400,000 cars give new meaning to "chaos theory. " To navigate around downtown, drivers are forced to change lanes several times to get where they want to go - which might be an exit on the left or right. They find their lane suddenly merged with another freeway. And there are no continuous frontage roads. To these toilsome traffic patterns, add explosive growth in metro-area population, blend and pour onto Dallas' antiquated freeway system. The recipe yield: frayed nerves, flared tempers, foul air and, on average, one accident each work day. Unless someone is killed or cows, chickens or lumber are involved, the crashes don't usually make the nightly news. But last October, the Canyon/Mixmaster made national news: The American Automobile Association rated the bottleneck's traffic jams among the 10 worst in the United States - the only one in Texas with that distinction. "Not only do you have people driving to different destinations outside of downtown, you just have more travel period," said Dan Kessler, assistant director of transportation at the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the metro planning agency. Today, solving the downtown bottleneck - which officials estimate costs drivers about $100 million a year in wasted time - is the region's top traffic priority. About $600 million in other regional transportation projects depends on a successful resolution there. To generate possible solutions, officials have relied on a sophisticated computer model produced with the latest geographic and traffic management software. After considerable tweaking of the model and an extensive public-involvement process over the last 16 months, a plan to untangle downtown freeways unfolded. "There isn't one solution to the downtown congestion problem," said Sandra Wesch-Schulze, the state transportation engineer in charge of the plan. "It's going to take a big pie broken into several smaller pieces. " Among the major slices of the plan that the Trinity Parkway Corridor policy committee will vote on Friday: * Trinity Parkway: A 10-mile, eight-lane "super arterial" that would bypass congested downtown freeways, run along both sides of the Trinity River and link Interstate 35E and State Highway 183 to U.S. 175. If required approvals are granted to restrict the road to cars, the $430 million parkway could very well be a 45-50 mph toll road with eight major exits and access to river-bottom parks, officials say. Southbound traffic would travel on the river's west side, northbound traffic on the east. The roadway would go under most existing crossing streets. Otherwise, the roadway would run on embankments of levees, which would be strengthened and could be raised. For its entire course, the parkway would not be visible from adjacent neighborhoods. On the parkway's southern end, south of Corinth Street, traffic would converge on the east side of the Trinity River as it ties into U.S. 175 - industrial areas where trucks would be allowed. To raise the parkway out of frequently flooded areas, fill dirt would be excavated from the Trinity River bottoms. Excavated areas could be turned into a chain of lakes that might also provide additional flood protection to the city's existing levee system, say officials. * Canyon/Mixmaster/lower Stemmons Freeway: A $431 million updating of the existing downtown freeway system, involving 200 individual projects. Permanent HOV systems, at a cost of $248 million, are also planned for I-30 (East R.L. Thornton and the west-side old turnpike) and on I-35E (South R.L. Thornton Freeway and north along Stemmons Freeway). Along the I-30 Canyon - the 1.5-mile depressed section between I-45 and I-35E - two main lanes would be added on the eastbound side for general traffic while existing lanes would be reconfigured for HOV lanes. Continuous frontage roads would be built along the Canyon. The Mixmaster, where I-30 and I-35E come together, would be reconfigured to allow through traffic on both freeways to stay in the same lanes through the interchange rather than being forced to change lanes as now required. New lanes would also be built so I-35E traffic would flow on three dedicated main lanes in each direction. Additionally, new direct-connect ramps would be built linking I-35E to I-30. Currently, there are no direct-connect ramps for traffic moving northbound to westbound and eastbound to southbound. Along both sides of I-35E, continuous frontage roads would be built from Reunion Arena north to Oak Lawn Avenue. And a set of new roads would be built along I-35E to directly connect Woodall Rodgers Freeway and the Dallas North Tollway so that traffic won't have to mix with cars on Stemmons Freeway as it does now. Woodall Rodgers Freeway would be extended across the Trinity River, connecting to Singleton Boulevard and Beckley Avenue, providing new freeway-type access to West Dallas and north Oak Cliff. * Other improvements: $24 million in congestion-reducing strategies, ranging from instantly dispatched tow trucks to bicycle and pedestrian trails. About $20 million would be spent on 45 miles of off-road trails and 11 miles of on-road facilities for bicycle commuters and pedestrians. Also planned are car- and van-pool programs for 200 businesses with more than 100 employees along the Trinity corridor. The plan also calls for establishing a high-tech "intelligent transportation system" that would monitor traffic flow on downtown freeways using pavement-imbedded sensors, meters on entrance and exit ramps and surveillance cameras. Tow trucks would be dispatched immediately to clear wrecked or stalled cars. Overhead highway message signs would warn drivers of slowdowns and recommend alternate routes. Continuous highway advisory reports would be broadcast on the radio. As sophisticated as the plan is in scope and scale, several key questions remain unanswered. Still to sort out, for example, are issues of how the parkway and nearby neighborhood would reach park areas in the Trinity River bottoms, particularly if tolls are imposed on the parkway; the banning of heavy trucks from the parkway, which would require City Council action and state and federal concurrence; the exact alignments of HOV lanes, particularly along northern Stemmons and State Highway 183; and whether the parkway would be a toll road or a freeway. Preliminary studies indicated that more than enough drivers would gladly pay a toll to bypass downtown traffic jams, officials say. And the project could be built much faster as a toll road, given the competition for state highway money. Meantime, some environmentalists vow to fight any use of the Trinity River corridor for transportation. "Any pavement between the existing levees is not the locally preferred solution," Sally Routh, a self-described "river lover," told state transportation officials at a recent public meeting. "Once our river and its environment is gone, it is gone forever. " Discontent over the plan is also being voiced by some officials who say the proposed parkway would be a barrier to the Trinity's commercial appeal and attractiveness as a people-pleasing amenity. "This is a freeway project, not a Trinity project," said Jeff Blackard, a Dallas developer who owns the prime 16-acre Burnett Field site in the Oak Cliff "gateway" area. Mr. Blackard said he has spent tens of thousands of dollars on plans for a riverside development there featuring a hotel, retail stores, river-bottom golf course and lake. "The freeway is a barrier to commercializing the Trinity River. It will create a larger wall between North and South Dallas. And we will never know what we could have had if we would have seen the Trinity as the focus of development," he said. Peter Vargas, the city of Dallas' Trinity "czar," defends the parkway's current design, which he said treats the sides of the river equally by providing what's needed most to foster economic development: access. "The concern from the beginning is that we provide adequate access to both sides of the river, and this design fulfills that vision," he said. "Having a parkway with access to the neighborhoods and to the recreational areas in the Trinity bottoms removes barriers, not increases them. " However details sift out, the project should be driven by an overriding principle, supporters say: To create along the Trinity a world-class design that would distinguish Dallas from its global competitors.ring on the project. Only continued pressure from the public will ensure that the transportation plan is carried out in a first-class manner, said City Council member Barbara Mallory-Caraway, chairwoman of the council's transportation committee. While all government agencies involved in the project will have to ante up their fair share for the $1 billion job, she said, city voters will be asked to approve a bond election for various Trinity projects. "Government can't sustain this project alone. The people must voice their will," said Ms. Mallory-Caraway, who is also vice chairwoman of the policy committee that will vote on the traffic plan. Approval by the policy committee on Friday is the first of many steps required for the project to proceed. The parkway plan then must go before the Dallas City Council, Dallas County Commissioners Court, Dallas Area Rapid Transit board, Regional Transportation Council, Texas Transportation Commission and, if funded by tolls, the Texas Turnpike Authority. Once policy approvals are obtained, more extensive engineering and environmental studies will ensue - particularly on the proposed Trinity parkway. Work could begin immediately on the traffic-management aspects of the plan. Still, the project won't be finished until 2020, the year for which it is being designed. Ms. Wesch-Schulze, the state engineer in charge of the project, hopes foresight is as perfect as the inevitable hindsight. "This is being planned with the best information available," she said. "My fear is that 20 years from now, some driver downtown may say, `What bonehead built this project? ' " Caption: ILLUSTRATION(S):/MAP(S):/PHOTO(S): (DMN: Lon Tweeten) Untangling Downtown Traffic./Downtown Dallas./1. Proposed northbound main lanes and bridge overpass. 2. Proposed northbound split parway with river to the left and existing levee to the right.; PHOTO LOCATION NOTE: These photos were not sent to the library for archiving. Edition: HOME FINAL Section: NEWS Page: 1A Copyright 1997 The Dallas Morning News Company Record Number: 1674773