The city of Dallas plans to turn the Houston Street viaduct into a pedestrian greenway. Jefferson Boulevard would become the main vehicle roadway directly connecting Oak Cliff to downtown.
But following concerns by the City Council, staff plans to evaluate and refine options for the Jefferson viaduct.
Initial options for the viaducts were presented last month as part of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center master plan. City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said in a memo on Friday that staff would reimagine options and conduct a traffic study with an updated presentation expected in May.
Tolbert added that staff would work with Council Member Paul Ridley, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair, to call a special meeting next month.
The Houston Street viaduct is currently a one-way two lane roadway heading west from downtown with a DART line. Jefferson Boulevard is a one-way three lane roadway heading into downtown with bike lanes.
Rosa Fleming, director of Convention and Event Services, said the viaducts were created to accommodate Reunion Arena, which broke ground in 1978 and was demolished in 2009.
Both roadways currently run parallel to each other connecting to Young Street in downtown.
The proposed change would turn the Houston viaduct into a greenway for pedestrians, with bike lanes and the DART line. Jefferson would turn into a four lane roadway with two lanes going in either direction.
A study on the Jefferson viaduct presented to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee looked at ways to navigate traffic and connect the roadway to the convention center. Some options would involve moving the Jefferson viaduct around the future mobility hub for the Convention Center, with a staff-preferred option connecting it to Hotel Street.
But the presentation prompted conversations about access between downtown and West Dallas.
Council Member Cara Mendelsohn told staff that the changes would not directly impact her district, but she said everyone is impacted by how traffic moves in downtown.
"So, they may have been built for Reunion 53 years ago, but what they've become is essential for traffic," Mendelsohn said about the viaducts. "And you know, we've got people coming to our building wearing these buttons that say 'Connect the Core', and what this is actually doing is disconnecting the core."
Discussions to "connect the core" have happened as the city of Dallas evaluates plans for what to do with its City Hall property — one study estimated it to cost up to a billion dollars to fully renovate and upgrade. Groups like Connect the Core and Downtown Dallas Inc. have said that the City Hall property could be an opportunity to grow business in downtown.
Council Member Laura Cadena said people, especially her West Dallas residents, use the viaducts as a shortcut and asked whether there had been feedback on losing the connection.
Fleming said the public engagement process would start once the thoroughfare amendments were submitted.
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