Funding to build deck parks over Dallas highway approved by city council

Plans to reconnect neighborhoods bisected by a highway in Dallas using deck park bridges are moving forward after the Dallas City Council voted to greenlight its portion of funding for the project, totaling about $187 million. 

The parks will be built over I-30 on Lamar Street and between South Ervay Street and Harwood Street near Old City Park, bridging together communities that were separated decades ago when the freeway was constructed. 

The new park will be similar to Klyde Warren Park, which connects Downtown and Uptown Dallas over the Woodall Rogers Freeway.

Action taken by the council this week authorizes the city to pay $22.4 million from its convention center construction fund—or about $42 million in loan payments—to enter an agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to build the deck park on Lamar Street. The funding also includes the city’s portion of the cost of building the deck park near Old City Park. 

Federal grant funding of approximately $31 million will also support the construction of the Old City Park deck cap. 

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Earlier this year, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) was awarded $80 million in federal funding for its Bridging Highway Divides for DFW Communities project, which involves plans to connect four communities in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth region. 

The Dallas I-30 project includes the installation of support structures for three pedestrian caps/parks, which will be phase-constructed across the interstate.  

The timing of the construction of this infrastructure will align with TxDOT’s reconstruction of I-30 to avoid taxpayers paying twice to retrofit the needed structures later. 

The deck cap is intended to reconnect communities that were separated years ago by the construction of the original freeway, including the Dallas Downtown Historic District, the Dallas Farmers Market, the Cedars Area, Dallas Heritage Park, and several other residential and commercial areas in South and Southern Dallas, the Dallas City Council said in a memo.  

About $113.5 million in contracts have been awarded for the project to date, including for planning and advanced planning, with a total estimated cost of about $187.3 million. 

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