Construction of the new DART Silver Line has closed a half-mile stretch of Hillcrest Road, resulting in a lengthy year of detours and delays for residents of Far North Dallas.
The road was scheduled to reopen to traffic on Thursday, but it appeared that those plans were delayed as crews continued to work beyond the deadline.
For residents of far North Dallas, such as Lisa Mixon, the wait has been a long 52 weeks. For a year, Hillcrest Road has been blocked by road signs from McKamy to McCullum.
“I don’t think they’re ready,” Mixon stated. “I still see a lot of construction work. A lot of heavy vehicles. I think it’s been a mess.”
The goal of the project was to construct a new bridge and road for the DART Silver Line, a 26-mile rail that will link Plano to DFW Airport.
According to Mixon, the construction has forced commuters to take a different route through her area.
“I’ve seen more traffic on it. People speeding. Unfortunately, the massive amount of digging that they had to do, the dirt, and the air quality has been horrible,” Mixon stated.
“It’s like having your own private drive over the last year,” resident Richard Sinz stated, expressing his positive opinion of the project. “It’s going to help people. I don’t think I’ll use it, but I think it alleviates traffic from Garland to the airport.”
The route was remained closed as of Thursday.
“If Hillcrest Road doesn’t open on time, it will be just another in a long line of DART’s broken promises to the people of Far North Dallas,” said Councilwoman Cara Mendelson.
According to the approved Interlocal Agreement that was signed by the DART board and city council, it will also be subject to a $25,000 daily penalty.
“So, just I, for one, pray that the road they put in that it’s going to work and, kind of get our neighborhood back to being a little bit quieter,” Mixon stated.
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DART and the City of Dallas stated on Thursday in a joint statement that the road will not be reopening as scheduled:
“The City of Dallas and DART have announced they are delaying the partial reopening of Hillcrest Road between McCallum and Wester Way that was scheduled for Thursday, January 23, for two weeks. That section of Hillcrest has been closed for one year for construction related to DART’s Silver line. The delay of delivery of equipment for the new Hillcrest stormwater pump station has resulted in the station not being fully operational. And with the forecast rain over the next 10 days, the City and DART, in abundance of caution, decided to delay the partial reopening of Hillcrest.”
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