Advertisement
This is member-exclusive content
icon/ui/info filled

newsPolitics

Here’s how long it will take to reconstruct I-345 between downtown and Deep Ellum

A TxDOT official told the Dallas City Council that it could take at least five years to secure full funding for the $1.65 billion project and another five years to rebuild it.

It will be more than a decade before drivers travel a reconstructed Interstate 345 through downtown Dallas, according to a Texas Department of Transportation official on Wednesday.

TxDOT estimates five years just to secure enough state, federal and other funding to pay for the estimated $1.65 billion project and at least just as much time to tear the 2.8 miles of overhead highway down and rebuild it in a below-grade trench with new street overpasses above, Ceason Clemens, TxDOT’s Dallas district engineer, told City Council members.

The project is currently in the environmental assessment phase, which is expected to be finished by the spring. Design work and construction could follow, but, first, the revamping would have to get onto TxDOT’s 10-year plan for proposed state roadway improvements to be considered for funding. Clemens said the earliest that could happen is next summer.

Advertisement

“That would be an optimistic view, that in 10 years it’s going to be complete, and we’re cutting the ribbon,” she said.

Political Points

Get the latest politics news from North Texas and beyond.

Or with:

The City Council in May 2023 approved TxDOT’s recommendation of reconstructing the 51-year-old elevated highway that runs between downtown and Deep Ellum despite calls from some residents and council members to take at least another year to keep studying other options, such as replacing the roadway entirely with more ground-level boulevards. State transportation officials said the reconstruction is necessary to accommodate future regional growth and to cut down on costs for maintaining the aging highway as is.

More than 180,000 vehicles travel on the stretch of highway daily.

Advertisement

Remodeling the highway is believed to be a key way to reconnect Deep Ellum and southern Dallas to the city’s downtown core. Many have pointed to the highway as an example of government-sanctioned segregation, where freeways were built running through or walling off historically Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, such as Deep Ellum.

The City Council’s support of the TxDOT preferred remodel option was conditional and hinged on a series of goals being hit, such as the state transit agency studying ways to reroute trucks off I-345 and getting briefings on the project’s progress once every six months.

Clemens mentioned Wednesday that several of those conditions are in progress, including considering ways the revamped highway could be linked to other modes of transportation, such as biking and rail. The project could free up nearly 7 acres of land that TxDOT could sell to the city for redevelopment as well as another close to 6.5 acres for future decking over the highway, Clemens said.

Advertisement

But despite requests from City Council members last year for Dallas to seek grant funding to pay for a new study looking at alternatives to reconstructing I-345, city officials said Wednesday it still isn’t being pursued.

Former Assistant City Manager Robert Perez told council members in March that that the city was considering applying for the federal reconnecting communities and neighborhoods grant program but decided against it because other Dallas projects, such as Klyde Warren Park and the under-construction Southern Gateway deck park, were seeking that money.

Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Assistant City Manager Dev Rastogi, and Transportation and Public Works Department Director Gus Khankarli said Wednesday that a study on highway rebuild alternatives isn’t in the works. They said the City Council will consider approving a $2 million federal grant in December, which could lead to examining economic development opportunities with the current recommended highway plan.

“At this time, we do not have a source of funding to do an analysis that was put into the resolution last May,” Rastogi said.

The council last year also approved a condition that the city could withdraw its support of TxDOT’s recommendation at any time based on the results of that possible study and finding money to pay for other alternatives.

Clemens has repeatedly told council members that TxDOT won’t seek state or federal funding for any other plan besides their recommended trenching option.

She said TxDOT officials plan to have its latest public hearing on the project in the winter, which could include an updated project timeline and a draft environmental assessment reports. Public meetings in the spring led to feedback from residents that has resulted in some project tweaks, according to Clemens, such as removing a planned highway connection onto Allen Street after the nearby neighborhood raised concerns about traffic impacts.