Streets in Dallas are on the ballot in the May 4 election as voters will decide on whether to approve $521 million in bond money to improve the city’s infrastructure.
Proposition A asks voters to decide whether or not the city should issue the bond money for transportation projects, including improvements on the Malcolm X bridge near Deep Ellum and on State Highway 356 on the city’s northwest side.
“The needs of the city [are] pretty huge," said Ali Hatefi, the city’s director of public works. "The budget is limited."
Hatefi said the city needs about $270 million a year to achieve “zero degradation” — which means keeping the city’s streets in good condition on a metric called the pavement condition index.
“The scenario that we have, and this bond amount, probably not gonna hit that mark,” Hatefi said. “But again, that's another effort to get it closer to the improvements that we need at this point.”
Some of the higher value items on the city’s project list include $16 million for traffic signal and technology upgrades and $8 million for the city’s Vision Zero projects, which aim to reduce traffic-related deaths by 50% in the next six years.
Hatefi added that Dallas already includes around $65 million per year for infrastructure needs in the general budget, but he reiterated that the bond money will only go so far in terms of improvements.
“It doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to improve all the potholes or all the streets in a bad condition, because that is not happening with this type of money,” Hatefi said. “Regardless, you know, any improvement that we can provide to the street network to maintain the conditions that we have, that will be helpful.”
Early voting for the May 4 elections ends Tuesday, April 30.
Pablo Arauz Peña is KERA’s growth and infrastructure reporter. Got a tip? Email Pablo at parauzpena@kera.org. You can follow him on X @pabloaarauz.
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