A New Dallas

Highway 345 is falling apart. We think it should be torn down. Here’s why.

A new Dallas.  A city known for action and world class ambition, constantly changing itself and its image.  What does the next Dallas look like?  Is it built for the needs of future generations?

World class cities are platforms for social and economic exchange. They enhance opportunity through interconnectivity. Our highways through our city divide more than they unite. Now is the time to envision a new future for the city.

What if we could have 4 parks just as successful as Klyde Warren Deck Park for the same cost PLUS $4 billion in new private investment and 25,000 new residents living in downtown Dallas?

It's Possible

IH345 is the official name for the stretch of elevated highway defining the eastern boundary of downtown Dallas between Woodall Rodgers to the north and RL Thornton (I-30) to the south. It was built 40 years ago and currently divides downtown from Deep Ellum and Near East Dallas.

This independent study began 2 years ago to explore the economic, environmental, and traffic impacts of removing the freeway as it approached the end of its structural life span.

President Eisenhower went on to say that the matter of running Interstate routes through the congested parts of the cities was entirely against his original concept and wishes;

that he never anticipated that the program would turn out this way . . . and that he was certainly not aware of any concept of using the program to build up an extensive intra-city route network as part of the program he sponsored. He added that those who had not advised him that such was being done, and those who steered the program in such a direction, had not followed his wishes.”

Notes from Meeting - April 6th, 1960
Eisenhower Presidential Library Archives

Downtown Dallas, 1939

“The purpose of transportation is to bring people and goods to places where they are needed, and to concentrate the greatest variety of goods and people within that limited area, in order to widen the possibility of choice [while minimizing necessary cost and energy of travel]. A good transportation system minimizes unnecessary transportation [and infrastructure]; and in any event, it offers change of speed and mode to fit a diversity of human purposes.”

Lewis Mumford, The City in History, 1961

“The Art and Science of Urban Design
is to design streets and public spaces to maximize private use of the land.”

1912 City Plan of St Louis

1912 City Plan of St Louis