Dallas would likely have to spend more than planned for Trinity project if road voted down

Friday, October 12, 2007
By MICHAEL LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
mlindenberger@dallasnews.com

A decision by Dallas voters Nov. 6 to nix the Trinity toll road probably wouldn't stop work on the other aspects of the park-and-levee project – but it would leave the city scrambling to find millions of dollars in lost funding.

Supporters of the toll road have often warned that voting for the ballot measure could cost the city as much as $1 billion in lost funds. But the majority of those at-risk dollars would pay for the controversial road – a road that, if the measure succeeds, would no longer be part of the park project.

By contrast, most of the money for developing the park's other aspects – including its levees, lakes and green space – has either already been secured or is largely unrelated to the vote on the Trinity toll road.

"The city is committed to building the Trinity River Corridor Project, as much as possible with the available funding, regardless of the outcome of the election," said Rebecca Dugger, the project's manager at City Hall.

The federal government, for example, is paying most of the $140 million cost for the new levees. And Dallas voters approved a $286 million bond package in 1998 to pay for many other aspects of the park. Other improvements, particularly those envisioned for later stages of the project, are expected to come from private fundraising efforts.

A vote to kill the toll road wouldn't kill the rest of the project, Ms. Dugger said, but losing the road would make the project more expensive.

For example, the North Texas Tollway Authority plan for the toll road includes about $12 million for a series of ramps off the road and an aerial deck that would allow easier access to the park for downtown pedestrians. If the road is scrapped, those improvements would be, too – unless the city could find another way to pay for them.

But that's a fair trade-off, said Dallas City Council member Angela Hunt, who led the effort to put the toll road question on next month's ballot. The city is already going to have to build parking lots and complete access ramps off the toll road anyway, she said.

"I never bought into the idea that we have to have this toll road to have our park," she said. "If it means we have to lose 5 [million] or 6 million dollars for a series of half-ramps, in return for getting rid of this road, then that's us taking our medicine to avoid a poison pill."

Scrapping the road would cost the city in other ways, too.

To build its road, NTTA plans to use the dirt excavated to create lakes in the park – a step that will save the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about $25 million. If voters kill the toll road, some of those costs could be passed on to the city, Ms. Dugger said.

And if the toll road is struck from the project, some kind of road would still be needed to let drivers get to the park. But although the $1 billion toll road would be much more expensive overall, it would be far cheaper for the city. The 1998 bond election capped the city's contribution to the toll road at about $86 million – even as the road's cost since then has skyrocketed.

By contrast, the city would have to pay all of the costs for building a replacement road, making even a cheaper road potentially more expensive for Dallas. Of the $86 million earmarked for the toll road in the 1998 bond election, about $65 million remains unspent, Ms. Dugger said.

It's possible that money could be used to defray costs of the new road. But if it costs more, the city would be ineligible for help from the state or federal governments, said Michael Morris, the transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

"The city would be on its own there," said Mr. Morris, who opposes the referendum.

If the toll road is scrapped Nov. 6, the city would also likely have to replace $6 million pledged by Dallas County toward the cost of the soaring suspension bridges designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. That money is contingent upon the project including a toll road, Ms. Dugger said.

Former Dallas City Council member Craig Holcomb said the city would also lose millions of dollars in landscaping that the NTTA has promised as part of the toll road construction.

"A lot of the funding for the project goes away," said Mr. Holcomb, who is helping lead the city's effort to defeat the referendum. That effort has been joined by all of Ms. Hunt's colleagues on the council, as well as elected officials such as U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson.

Mr. Holcomb agreed with Ms. Dugger, however, that the city is committed to building the park, whatever the outcome of the toll road vote.

Ms. Hunt acknowledged that taking the toll road out of the project could cost the city of Dallas more, but she said those extra costs are worth it.

"Are we going to have to figure out how we are going to pay for access roads to the park if we get rid of the toll road? Are we going to have to pay for that? Absolutely," she said. "But this toll road will ruin our best and last opportunity to have an incredible downtown park."

Mr. Morris said the true cost of not building the toll road should be measured well outside the levees – whether the rest of the Trinity River Corridor Project gets built.

The toll road is expected to carry as many as 100,000 passengers a day, providing essential relief to congested corridors through downtown, he said.

Without that reliever route, future improvements to existing highways throughout downtown are all but impossible, given the heavy congestion already experienced there. He told residents in southwest Dallas earlier this month that as much as $5 billion in area highway work could be jeopardized if the road is voted down.

Ms. Hunt argues that taking the road out of the park doesn't mean killing it. Build it someplace else, she said.

But where? Mr. Morris and NTTA officials said other options previously studied appeared much more costly. They estimate buying new right of way and putting the road along Industrial Boulevard, for instance, could cost $500 million more.

Ms. Hunt said those estimates are guesses, noting that a final design for the road is still a year away.

NTTA conceded that cost estimates for the project are just that, estimates. But they said they are far more than simple guesses. NTTA said putting the road along Industrial Boulevard, for instance, would delay the project for at least two years. Those delays, coupled with the cost of buying up land along the new route, would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, NTTA said.

In all, NTTA says building the road alongside Industrial Boulevard would cost about $1.6 billion, compared with $1.2 billion for the Trinity toll road as now envisioned.

"The primary difference in costs between the Industrial and levee alternatives are associated with right of way and relocation costs," NTTA said in response to questions from The Dallas Morning News. It would "require approximately 250 commercial displacements."

The current plan would involve about 25 similar displacements, the authority said.

But Ms. Hunt said starkly rising costs haven't deterred the NTTA's interest in building the toll road between the levees, even as costs have neared $1 billion.

"If 100,000 cars are going to use this road every day, I think there is money there for NTTA to make a profit, Ms. Hunt said. "Otherwise, they wouldn't be still interested in building it within the levees."

And, she said, any savings associated with building the road inside the park fail to account for the price paid by residents who are giving up 154 acres of parkland for the road.

"I don't think the city has gotten a great deal here," said Ms. Hunt. "The residents of Dallas are turning over a remarkable amount of park land for this road – and the city is applying no value to that."

But Mr. Holcomb said the anti-toll road camp fails to appreciate the larger picture. "The public is starting to understand that this vote is not just about 'Do you want a toll road in your park or not?' It's not that simple."

Courtesy of the Dallas Morning News, Friday, October 11th 2007 Edition
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