{"id":238911,"date":"2026-04-07T15:49:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/238911\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T15:49:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:49:22","slug":"dallas-council-sends-staff-back-to-drawing-board-on-viaduct-plans-linking-oak-cliff-to-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/238911\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Council Sends Staff Back To Drawing Board On Viaduct Plans Linking Oak Cliff To Downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"294\" data-end=\"506\">A City Council committee has ordered staff to develop new proposals for rerouting traffic between North Oak Cliff and Downtown after neighbors warned the changes could isolate their community from the urban core.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"508\" data-end=\"875\">The preferred plan would convert the Jefferson Street viaduct to two-way traffic but shift its Downtown endpoint from Young Street to Hotel Street, beneath the expanded Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Earlier designs had called for closing Houston Street \u2014 the current southbound route from Downtown into Oak Cliff \u2014 to vehicles and making it pedestrian-only.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"877\" data-end=\"1211\">City officials said rising costs on the more than $3 billion convention center redevelopment forced them to lower the building, eliminating a direct Jefferson connection. Director of Convention and Event Services Rosa Fleming told the committee the adjustment would save about $500 million, though some members questioned that figure.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1213\" data-end=\"1306\">\u201cI have never seen anything in writing that says that,\u201d Council member Paul Ridley <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfaa.com\/article\/traffic\/dallas-council-members-neighbors-criticize-city-plan-to-reroute-traffic-connection-from-north-oak-cliff-to-downtown\/287-e26ffb67-4ca8-4d8e-900e-de5b9cd2a155\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told<\/a> WFAA.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1308\" data-end=\"1454\">Residents of North Oak Cliff said the revisions would sever their access to Downtown and accused the city of turning its back on the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1456\" data-end=\"1666\">\u201cNow they\u2019re going to deprive us of getting to and from Downtown?\u201d asked attorney John Barr, whose office sits just across the Trinity River. \u201cJust because the guys doing the convention center are over budget?\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1668\" data-end=\"1726\">Barr said he is considering a lawsuit to block the change.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1728\" data-end=\"1878\">\u201cThis is a bad idea and they recognize it as a bad idea,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s like telling North Dallas, \u2018We\u2019re going to stop the Dallas North Tollway.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1880\" data-end=\"2006\">At the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meeting on March 23, members told staff to return with alternative designs.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2008\" data-end=\"2260\">\u201cYou\u2019re going to forever change the traffic, which is going to be a nightmare for people,\u201d Council member Cara Mendelsohn said. \u201cThe truth is, if it\u2019s going to take another $500 million to get it right, I\u2019d rather spend that and have it done properly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2262\" data-end=\"2335\">Staff are scheduled to present revised options to the committee in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A City Council committee has ordered staff to develop new proposals for rerouting traffic between North Oak Cliff&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[898,102,105,104,103,109,90278,91799,90680,9728,1828,4896,901,90279,272,64758],"class_list":{"0":"post-238911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-cara-mendelsohn","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-city-council","11":"tag-dallas-headlines","12":"tag-dallas-news","13":"tag-downtown-dallas","14":"tag-houston-street-viaduct","15":"tag-jefferson-street-viaduct","16":"tag-john-barr","17":"tag-kay-bailey-hutchison-convention-center","18":"tag-north-oak-cliff","19":"tag-oak-cliff","20":"tag-paul-ridley","21":"tag-rosa-fleming","22":"tag-traffic","23":"tag-transportation-and-infrastructure-committee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}