New Dallas Bridge Park Executives Clarify Mayor Pro Tem’s Score After Sunday’s Interview

Medelin PinFebruary 6, 2023

“Not a single major donor has abandoned the project. In fact, we are going to announce an additional $3 million in new funding effective Jan. 1,” park officials said.

DALLAS. The president of Southern Gateway Park, the city’s newest public-private bridge park that will span the top of Interstate 35E in Oak Cliff, said the project is financially sound and will open on time, refining a Mayor Pro statement. Them Carolyn King Arnold at the weekend.

In Sunday’s edition of Inside Texas Politics, Mayor Pro Tem Arnold said the park needs more money to complete construction.

“We probably need an extra $20 million,” Arnold said Sunday. Inside Texas Politics.

But Southern Gateway Park executives have said the $20 million she mentioned is for future bridge park expansion, not to pay for one currently under construction.

“She means the second phase of the park. We are on track to open Phase 1 next year,” April Allen, president and chief operating officer of Southern Gateway Park, tweeted on Sunday.

The South Gate Community Green Foundation, a non-profit organization responsible for the development, construction and future management of the bridge park, said it is seeking $20 million in the next Dallas bond election to expand the bridge park south to Marsalis Avenue. This future expansion, known as Phase 2, is not scheduled to begin construction for another three to five years.

The $20 million in city bonds needed for the park’s second phase would match the federal grant the North Central Texas Council of Governments is seeking for it.

But the park’s first phase, which will cover 2.8 acres, is more than 85 percent funded and is scheduled to open early next year, a spokesman said.

“We are on track to start beautifying the park this spring and open as planned in 2024,” the spokesperson added. “To date, not a single major donor has abandoned the project. In fact, we’re only going to announce an additional $3 million in new funding starting January 1st.”

In November 2021, the Dallas City Council unanimously approved an agreement to develop a bridge park in Oak Cliff. It is supposed to be similar to Clyde Warren Park, which is located above the Woodall Rogers Freeway in the city center.

This second bridge park was touted by local leaders and developers as a way to reunite Oak Cliff after Interstate 35E divided the community in the 1960s.