In southeast Dallas, some pedestrians in Joppa have resorted to walking precariously along a narrow bridge with speeding vehicles or squeezing between train cars to get back home.
Funding was approved in 2019 and construction was initially expected to last until 2023. Then, it was slated to begin in 2024. Now, according to the city, a construction contract is expected in late fall with completion in spring 2029.
Neighbors are happy to have hope for progress but the fix is long overdue, said Shalondria Galimore, who leads Joppa’s neighborhood association.
“It’s disappointing,” Galimore said of the delay. “Sad to say, we’re used to it now. We’ve been conditioned to it now.”
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Access has long been a problem in Joppa, a former freedman’s town about 6 miles southeast of downtown, where residents have lived amid industrial facilities.
“It’s not just what we want, but it’s critical for public safety. It’s actually necessary,” Galimore said. “I know that other things take precedence across the city.”
The city, in 2006, decided to build a bridge over the tracks — but for vehicles. Then in 2018, residents at a sparsely attended community meeting voted to allow Union Pacific to work on a new track and permanently close a crossing, Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark Lamster wrote in 2020.
A stipulation was made that the crossing be replaced with a pedestrian bridge.
In an emailed statement, the city said the project has involved coordination between the Texas Department of Transportation and the Union Pacific Railroad, “given the impact of the project on the rail line and the rail yard.”
The project also requires the city to acquire right-of-way along Linfield Road to ensure implementation.
The bridge project is paid for by federal funds reimbursed by TxDOT, but the city is responsible for its design and construction, an agency spokesperson said Thursday. In an emailed statement, Union Pacific said it continues to collaborate with city officials “to resolve details in the plans” for the project.
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“The project timeline was delayed, in part, to ensure City staff could receive additional feedback from the public on the proposed design plans for the pedestrian bridge,” the statement said.
The city’s transportation department hosted a public meeting in May 2024 to discuss the plans and solicit community feedback, which was compiled and reviewed by staff.
“They’re just playing with words,” Galimore said of community engagement being part of the delay. She remembers having a meeting earlier this year in spring, where she was told work would start in August.
“To us, it’s just a simple fix, but we know all of the logistics that go into it because they’ve come out and we’ve had community meetings and all,” Galimore said. The plans include beautification and greening, she said.
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Galimore is skeptical of how long the project will actually take. The community is aware there’s a process, but it’s been a more than six-year effort, she said.
“It’s much more than just crossing from one side to the other,” Galimore said. “Although we’re grateful for the project finally moving forward, it was the persistence of the residents. We never stopped advocating for it because this is what our community deserves.”
This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.