Heed county's threat to pull Trinity funds

Editorial

Dallas Morning News Monday, September 3, 2007

For a decade, Dallas leaders have been piecing together the $1.25 billion needed to control flooding, expand green space and ease congestion in the Trinity River Corridor. Now, with a referendum on the toll road looming, some of the project's financial backers are rightly worried about getting their money's worth.

That's why Dallas County commissioners sent a strong message to the city last week: If the Trinity Project doesn't include a toll road, we'll take our money and go home.

The county contributed $6 million toward the Calatrava bridge with the understanding that the new Interstate 30 span and the Trinity toll road would ease traffic congestion downtown. But City Council member Angela Hunt has forced a November vote that could prohibit the city from building the planned highway within the river levees.

Of course, the county's $6 million won't sink the project. But that likely won't be the only money that disappears if the referendum passes. For example, Texas Department of Transportation officials have voiced concerns that without the Trinity reliever route, hundreds of millions in federal funds for other improvements to downtown highways could be jeopardized.

Lose out on a few million here and a few hundred million there – pretty soon it adds up to real money.

To this, Ms. Hunt and her allies respond with only vague assurances. They're not against a toll road, they say, as long as it's not within the levees. But they aren't offering any ideas about where a road could be constructed. And they conveniently ignore the fact that the only other viable alternative on the table – along Industrial Boulevard – would cost almost twice as much and take years longer to build.

When presented with the consequences of what they're proposing, opponents of the planned toll road defer, saying it's not up to them to make these decisions. Not our problem, they seem to be saying.

But if they succeed in derailing the current project, the delays and cost hikes that result will become everybody's problem.

Courtesy of the Dallas Morning News, Monday, September 3rd 2007 Edition
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