The region’s most influential transportation official on Friday defended his support for the controversial Trinity Parkway, two weeks after a report used his organization’s own traffic projections to call it a boondoggle.
Although the road won’t significantly improve traffic conditions throughout that corridor, Michael Morris said it would help congestion on several arterial streets. He said it would also spur economic development in West Dallas and Oak Cliff by increasing the number of drivers on other surface streets.
“We think that by providing accessibility, we too are increasing economic development,” said the transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
Morris said that the road would also help development along Interstate 35E south of downtown. When asked whether a plan to widen that stretch of highway could do that without the toll road, Morris said the connectivity to the Trinity toll road would buttress efforts.
“We build transportation systems,” Morris said. “You guys look at them as individual projects.”
Traffic projections for 2035 show the controversial toll road would increase average traffic speed two miles in that area to 32 mph. Those same estimates say time spent in traffic would drop 7 percent, but that the same percentage of lane miles in the area would be congested regardless of whether the road is built.
Morris said he couldn’t comment on those estimates because they are part of a document that seeks federal approval to build the road, a process now underway. Yet Morris said that the large area used in the document uses averages for several roads. He said ones farther from the Trinity toll road probably wouldn’t be affected, suggesting that roads closer to the Trinity project would see greater effects.
Morris also used maps from the same document as evidence that the number of drivers on several city streets would drop dramatically if the road were built. Those maps show big drops on Riverfront and Irving boulevards, which would run parallel to the toll road. It also shows significant drops for Lamar Street in east Oak Cliff. Several streets in downtown Dallas would also see the number of drivers drop by up to 3,500 a day.
Other arteries would see significant increases in drivers with the toll road. That includes Hampton Road from the Trinity River to Wright Street, the Houston Street viaduct and Oak Lawn Avenue between I-35E and Maple Avenue.
The document seeking federal clearance was used by the Texas Public Interest Research Group to call the project one of 11 highway boondoggles in the country. Morris said the group used national trends to support its conclusion without considering North Texas demographics. He also said the group discounted the fact that Dallas Area Rapid Transit built the largest light-rail system in America when it said Dallas needs to diversify its transportation infrastructure.
Sara E. Smith, state director of Texas Public Interest Research Group, said that she applauds DART’s achievement and that Dallas has made great strides in increasing transportation options.
“That doesn’t justify millions in dollars for a toll road project that the numbers just aren’t there to support,” she said.
Dallas City Council member Scott Griggs also took issue with Morris’ statements that the toll road would help economic development in Oak Cliff, the district he represents. Griggs said that area and West Dallas have already had several economic success stories without a new road.
“No one tells me I’m coming here [because I’m] waiting for this toll road,” Griggs said.
Griggs said increased traffic on surface streets would bring only big-box shopping centers and chain restaurants. He said that’s not the kind of development Dallas residents want in the urban core.
“We have to decide if we want downtown Dallas to be a place that people just drive through very quickly or if we want to make it a place that people call home,” he said.
Griggs asked a city attorney to determine if a contract Dallas has with North Texas Tollway Authority to build the road obligates the city to fund the project. The attorney said the contract is probably unenforceable.
Morris denied early Friday that he ever said the contract bound Dallas to build the road. He said he’s never read it, paid attention to it or weighed in on it.
The opinion by Dallas’ attorney hasn’t prompted NTTA officials to seek a different assessment.
“We have not sought any legal opinions,” said NTTA spokesman Michael Rey. “As always, we are focused on completing the environmental process and must remain neutral.”
Follow Brandon Formby on Twitter at @brandonformby.
