Just a few updates on the Trinity Toll Road, for those playing along at home:

First up, excerpts from Michael Lindenberger’s article in the Dallas Morning News, “U.S. postpones decision on Trinity toll road to evaluate levee problems”:

Problems with the Trinity River levees have prompted the Federal Highway Administration to postpone a decision about where to build the controversial Trinity toll road….The agency will take until April or May reviewing how the levees’ problems could affect the toll road’s cost or environmental impact….On the toll road, [FHWA Texas Division Chief Janice] Brown said, the FHWA will weigh any additional costs associated with putting the road between the levees when it issues its final decision….”Additional costs will be a factor,” Brown said. “But we don’t yet know how much more the road will cost as a result of the levees.” If costs for building the road between the levees become too high, that could prompt the agency to order the route changed or cancel it altogether.

The FHWA’s new study comes after the agency spent years evaluating the toll road’s alternative routes as part of its draft environmental impact statement….

Once the new report is issued, the FHWA will open a period of public comment – a lengthy process that requires the agency and its partners, including the North Texas Tollway Authority, to respond to every comment related to the proposed toll road. Such responses can take months, or longer, depending on their volume and complexity.

Next, over on the DMN Opinion Blog, Editor Sharon Grigsby discusses “Trinity Fatigue“: “Today the Federal Highway Administration makes headlines with the news that it is postponing its decision on where to build the toll road because of the levee problems….It’s been eight years or more since now former Dallas Morning News reporter and Trinity expert Victoria Loe Hicks warned us that, with so many agencies in the approval process, it would be a miracle if they could ever all get on the same page.” She asked Ms. Hicks about her assessment of the current situation:

There’s a word for creating a new product from scratch or creating a product in a radically new way that has never been tried before: prototype.

Whether building a high speed toll road in a floodway is a good idea or a bad idea, it’s never been done before, so the Trinity (so-called) Parkway is a prototype. And, as anyone familiar with R&D will tell you, prototypes are expensive and time consuming. Not sometimes, always. It takes time and money to solve problems never before solved, and all prototypes encounter unforeseen problems.

So what did the TP’s backers tell us? That building this prototype would be the quickest, cheapest way to relieve congestion on Stemmons. There’s a word for claims that run directly counter to logic and experience: nuts.

Lastly, excerpts from Sunday’s DMN frontpage report: “Corps’ caution on Trinity collides with desire to go forward“:

Dallas’ most complex and aggressive public works project ever is mired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ concerns about something in the Trinity River bottoms as old and common as dirt. Sand, to be exact….Their worry: Water could seep through the sand and undermine the levees. Construction could also create gaps in the hard clay covering the flood works, and a big-enough flood could force enough water through the sand and erode the levees from within….So the city recently extended the Trinity project’s timetable by 20 months to analyze the soil.

Michael Lindenberger at the DMN’s transportation blog has a great run-down of the Corps’ more serious findings and their repercussions moving forward.

Regarding our flood control levees:

The city’s briefing report argued that the levees are some 14 feet higher the river crested in 1990 — arguing, by extension, that we’re still safe. But if the levees are breached, it won’t matter how tall they are, or were, before the flood.

The levees have to be fixed first. And those fixes could cause big delays and huge costs for the city. The flaws that the Corps has pointed out are more worrisome than we expected from the city’s extremely positive reading of the findings last month. They could lead to massive rebuilding projects — projects that could require enormous sums of money, money that the city would have to find.

And on the Trinity toll road:

So can the toll road still be built? Maybe, depending on what is learned about the extent of the problems in the levees. The problems that are most pressing are ones we knew about, but hadn’t realizes were as extensive as they appear to be from the corps’ report. The sand layers are big, the report says, and very close to the base of the structures that are worrying the corps — just six feet below the base of the bridge, for instance, there is a layer of sand as deep as 25 or so feet.

Other links on the Corps’ report:

USACE Report

April 1, 2009 – 3:55 PM
Michael Lindenberger – DMN Transportation Blog
Corps to City: Trinity Levees failures are extreme, could prompt FEMA action

April 1, 2009 – 4:04 PM
Robert Wilonsky – Unfair Park
At Long Last, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Delivers Its Trinity Floodway Assessment

April 1, 2009 – 4:49PM
Robert Wilonsky – Unfair Park
More from the Corps: Or, Why You’ll Now Think Twice About Driving I-35 Over River

April 1, 2009 – 5:25PM
Robert Wilonsky – Unfair Park
Word of the Day: Desiccation

April 1, 2009 – 9:48 PM
Michael Lindenberger – DMN Transportation Blog
Does this mean the Trinity toll road can’t be built?

April 2, 2009 – 5:46 AM
Jeff Siegel – Advocate Magazine Talkback
The Trinity levees, and unsafe they are

April 2, 2009 – 5:56 AM
Rudy Bush – DMN City Hall Blog
Dallas City Hall Monitor: Thursday, April 2, 2009

April 2, 2009 – 6:29 AM
Michael Lindenberger and Rudy Bush – DMN
Levees may not protect downtown, Corps of Engineers’ final report says

April 2, 2009 – 7:18 AM
Zac Crain – D Magazine FrontBurner
Leading Off (4/2/09)

April 2, 2009 – 10:53 AM
Ryan Rusak – DMN City Hall Blog
Read and react: The Trinity River levees report

April 2, 2009 – 11:00AM
Jim Schutze – Unfair Park
Enter Sand, Man

April 2, 2009 – 11:49 AM
Rudy Bush – DMN City Hall Blog
Trees must be removed from Trinity River banks, corps says

April 2, 2009 – 12:59 PM
James Ragland – DMN Metro Blog
What do you fine, highly respected citizens of D-FW see in the Trinity River levees report?

We must fix our levees immediately. We cannot let the toll road continue to delay our levee improvements.

UPDATE: Here is a link to part of the Corps’ report.

In the editorial, I recommend we close the I-635 loop on the west side of the city by linking the western portion of Loop 12 to I-20. A couple of folks were quick to point out the fact that Loop 12 already connects to I-20 via Spur 408.

They are correct, of course, but I was proposing a different route, one along Walton Walker Boulevard. The original editorial I sent to the Dallas Morning News was nearly a thousand words, which they kindly informed me was too long by a mere 400 words. I spent a couple of hours chopping away, trying to keep the same basic premise without losing the gist of my points, and came in right at their maximum. In the original editorial I sent them, I more thoroughly described the connection:

“Complete the 635 Loop by connecting I-20 with Walton Walker and the western portion of Loop 12. This will give inland port and NAFTA Trade Corridor traffic a simpler, faster route around Downtown instead of through it.”

I decided to remove the Walton Walker reference for brevity’s sake, assuming it was clear that the missing link I was proposing was an eastern route connecting Loop 12 to I-20, not a western route that already existed. Now I realize I should have kept in those three words for clarity.

Another edit from the original editorial had to do with the nature of our proposed Trinity Park:

“Making the Trinity an amazing place for people to gather isn’t about building a white water rafting course or constructing iconic bridges. It’s about creating great access to an already remarkable swath of greenspace. If we focus on creating entry points to the park, people – and adjacent development – will come.”

Today, the only way I know of to get to the park from the Downtown side is from Sylvan Ave. We could build all the lakes in the world down there, but without access, the park will remain as vacant as it is today (save for Crow Park at Sylvan Avenue). The park is already amazing as it is. The lakes will add to that. But in the meantime, all we need to do is add the planned trails, put in vehicular ramps and parking areas, and create pedestrian and bicycle linkages. That will go a long way towards opening up the park.

Join me at a Dallas City Council meeting five years from now:

It’s 2014. Under Mayor Tom Leppert’s plan, the Trinity toll road should have opened last year, but its construction hasn’t even begun. It remains mired in federal safety analyses due to concerns about its effect on Dallas’ levees. The North Texas Tollway Authority bowed out in early 2011 when it determined it could not fund the now $2.4 billion project.

City staff reluctantly informs the council and mayor that there is no way to bridge the enormous funding gap. The buckets of money once touted to finance the road have been spent on other more critical transportation needs in the region. Less than half of the city’s $84 million in bond funds for the road remains.

Trinity levee improvements have not been completed. Not a shovel of dirt has been turned to bring the Trinity Park to life, and no lakes exist within the floodway. Now that plans for the park have been all but scrapped, the residential and mixed-use developments once planned along Industrial Boulevard have been abandoned.

The city manager chooses her words carefully, but the meaning is clear: The Trinity toll road is dead. With millions of taxpayer dollars and years of staff time wasted, the city must now reconcile itself to nearly two decades without a park, without levee enhancements and without traffic improvements.

That is our future, unless we act now. Before wasting another minute or spending another dime on what has clearly become an unworkable route, we can chart a new course. It’s time to implement a new plan – Plan B – premised on eliminating the toll road from the Trinity River floodway. Rather than continuing on a course that promises more delay and uncertainty, Plan B will allow us to move forward.

Here is my vision for Plan B:

1. Flood control

• Fix our levees without further delay.

2. Transportation

• Move forward immediately with TxDOT’s Project Pegasus, which will help unsnarl traffic in the Mixmaster and Canyon.

• Fix Dead Man’s Curve in South Dallas and transform S.M. Wright into a beautiful boulevard.

• Complete the Interstate 635 loop by connecting Interstate 20 with the western portion of Loop 12. This will give the Inland Port and NAFTA Trade Corridor traffic a simpler, faster route around downtown instead of through it.

• Expedite mass transit alternatives that get cars off our congested downtown freeways. Work with DART to create additional light rail routes.

3. Trinity Park

• Proceed with federal approval for the park lakes and quickly construct the planned trails.

• Open it to residents by creating safe, protected pedestrian and bicycle routes to the park from downtown and Oak Cliff. Construct planned parking facilities in and near the park.

We can no longer allow the toll road’s delay and uncertainty to prevent Dallas from moving forward in addressing our transportation and flood control needs and in fulfilling the promise of a great park. Plan B will allow us to finally realize the dream of the Trinity River project.

Some city leaders refuse to acknowledge the need for Plan B, dismissing concerns about the toll road as defeatist. This approach appears less and less prudent as problems with the toll road compound and its billion-dollar funding gap grows.

I hope our city leadership will recognize the need to chart a new course, one that fulfills promises rather than defers them. We owe it to Dallas residents who have begun to lose faith in this project and our city government. Much has changed since the toll road referendum, and I’m ready to work with the mayor and the rest of the council to begin Plan B today.

Together, we can finally get the dirt flying on the Trinity River project.

I was surprised that our levees failed to meet the new standards since the Mayor just got back from lobbying our Congressional delegation to pressure the Corps into speeding up their safety evaluation of the Trinity toll road, which is to be built within the levees. If you’ve been following this issue, you know that no major road like this has ever been built within a levee system. Knowing that our levees do not meet the Corps’ new safety standards, I think it’s irresponsible to lobby the Corps to speed up what should be a thoughtful, deliberate safety review of an untested engineering design like the toll road. Rushing to pour millions of tons of concrete into an already unsafe levee system is a dangerous plan that could have dire consequences.

In light of the Corps’ safety analysis, it is clear that we need to fix our levees NOW. Not next year, not five years from now, not after a catastrophic flood, but today. But the toll road is holding up our levee improvements. We cannot fix all the safety problems with our levees until the design of this toll road is completed. As long as the toll road is part of the equation, all those parts have to be built to work together, and if we don’t have the design for the road, we can’t plan the design for the levees, and we certainly can’t fix them.

The fact is, this toll road project is dead. There’s no funding for it. Despite the Mayor’s assurances during the Trinity referendum to the contrary, the NTTA just admitted that the toll road is facing a billion dollar funding shortfall. If the Corps is allowed to do their job without political manipulation, the toll road will likely face even more delays as a result of their new safety review. If we continue on this course, if we ignore the obvious warning signs and stubbornly plow ahead, the safety needs of our levees will continue to languish and be held hostage by this white elephant of a toll road for years to come. The dirt will not fly. The Mayor’s 2013 deadline for toll road completion will come and go, the toll road cost will double again, and the funding gap will increase exponentially.

In another ten years, 2019, future city officialls will reluctantly admit that putting the toll road between the levees is not a viable, fundable option. The toll road will finally die with a whimper, and we will have wasted twenty years and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars without the levee improvements we so desperately need. It’s time to change course and admit today that this toll road won’t work, and find a better way to address our transporation needs without delaying or compromising the safety of our flood levees.

I was very, very disappointed in what I found: This is a roads project.

Yes, you read that right. All those rumors you’ve heard, all those Jim Schutze articles you’ve read, they’re right on the money. The vast majority of the public funds for this project will be spent on a six-lane highway INSIDE the downtown levee. (To be clear, the levees are the little hills that run along both sides of the Trinity River basin.)

So you’re thinking to yourself, why on earth would we put a huge highway — a toll road — inside the levee that is supposed to contain the biggest park in the world? Frankly, I have no idea.

I’ve gotten various explanations about the toll road. Some say we must have a road there or we’ll have traffic problems in Dallas (imagine). Some say I-35 is overwhelmed and must be expanded, and this is the single, best, and only way to do it.

Others offer this explanation: Without the road, we couldn’t pay for the park. Here’s how that theory works. We’ve got to dig out a bunch of dirt to create the man-made lakes. TxDOT needs a bunch of dirt to build up the levee for the road, so they’ll buy that dirt from us, and we’ll basically get the lakes dug out for free. Unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion that at the end of the day, TxDOT is going to say that the City was going to dig out the lakes anyway, and we’re lucky that they took all that dirt off our hands, and here’s the bill, thank you.

Up to now, when people have asked me what I think about the Trinity River Project, here’s what I’ve said: Whether I like it, love it, or think it’s the worst project ever, my responsibility as an elected official is to effectuate the will of the voters who approved the Trinity River Project bond in 1998.

So what exactly is the “will” of the voters? I think we can deduce that in two ways. The simplest is to look at what residents wrote on comment sheets and questionnaires the city sent out at the time the project was being developed.

I reviewed all of the comment sheets, and when residents were asked about the most important part of the project, they said “the parks.” When asked what they thought about the transportation part of the project, they stated some variation of “NO HIGHWAY! NO TOLLROAD! THE ROAD WILL RUIN THE PARK!” Often in capital letters. Usually underlined.

Another way we can discern voter intent is to look at what residents ask most about when they want to know what’s going on with the Trinity River project. People ask me all the time, “When is the Trinity River park going to be ready?” “When will we be able to canoe down the lakes?” No one has ever, ever asked me, “When is the huge toll road going to be built?” People want the huge, glorious park that they were sold and that they voted for. People want flood control and protection. People want the lakes, the wetlands, the Great Trinity Forest. No one wants a big stinking toll road with cars whizzing by. If you’ve been down to the Trinity River, say, around Sylvan Avenue, the nice thing about being down in the floodplain is that you’re surrounded by a vast park with green hills on either side. You don’t feel like you’re in the middle of a city. Loud, polluting cars zooming by inside the hill are going to kill that.

I got this bee in my bonnet after the Trinity River committee met today. We were briefed on the North Texas Tollroad Authority’s possible involvement with the tollroad. I voiced exactly what I’ve stated above, and pointed out that I wouldn’t be supporting a highway along the Trinity Park in any way, shape, or form.

The chair of the Committee, Ed Oakley, pointed out that the tollway was a done deal, and I wouldn’t have the opportunity to vote against it; that the only input we have now will be to create a pretty design for the toll road.

As to whether the toll road is a done deal, only time will tell. As to making the toll road pretty, I say that that is putting lipstick on a pig. We can dress up the tollway any way we like. We can coat it in chocolate frosting and put a big red bow on it, and it’s still a toll road right alongside a park.

Who’s bright idea was this?

Last thing I’ll say is this: I’m a skeptic, if not by nature, then profession (attorney). When I see that all of the Trinity River Project comment cards and questionnaires unequivocally stated, in no uncertain terms, that residents didn’t want a tollroad, yet they got one anyway, it makes me very, very uneasy with the current comprehensive plan process. The city claims to be soliciting resident input on the comprehensive plan, but at the end of the day, I really wonder if it’ll make any difference at all. I get the feeling that the fundamentals of that plan, like the Trinity River Project, have already been written in stone, and we’re going to get what we’re going to get. I worry that in a few years, we’re going to be asking ourselves, “Who’s bright idea was this?”

Slot machines and a horse race track are currently part of the entertainment center proposal, and I’ve got concerns about bringing gambling in our City. I directed staff to look at this issue more broadly, not just at how much money this will bring to the City. For example, we need to consider the impact of gambling on public safety, social cost in gambling addiction, whether other cities that have adopted slots gambling have themselves become “addicted” to the revenue, and why other cities have tried to get out of the slot machine gambling business.

This issue is now going back to the Economic Development Committee to discuss concerns brought up by me and other councilmembers. (I’m on that committee.) We’ll then give direction to the negotiating team about what we as a City want to see in the agreement.

PROPOSAL: To continue negotiating the land trade and entertainment project; to bring a recommendation to the Economic Development Committee by November 21; to brief the full Council by Dec. 5; to present for Council vote by Dec. 14. (BB moved, JF seconded.)

VOTE: (13:2, AH voting yes, LM and MR voting no)