Calatrava's new Dallas bridge further troubled due to cable flaws

2018-02-02T13:28:00-05:00

The Margaret McDermott Bridge was supposed to be open to pedestrians and bicyclists by now, but the arches over the Trinity River remain closed partially over concerns about broken cables. The issue centers around problems with the cables -- and their resistance to heavy winds -- that connect the arch to the base of the Dallas bridge, which was designed by famed architect Santiago Calatrava and his firm.

The $113-million (partially) Calatrava-designed Margaret McDermott Bridge carrying Interstate 30 is part of Dallas' ambitious Trinity River Project.

"City officials are hoping to open the bridge to pedestrians and cyclists in March," Dallas News writes. Meanwhile the finger-pointing between TxDOT, city officials, and the architect is in full swing.

Calatrava's bridge in Dallas shot down, back as zombie

2011-04-13T21:33:00-04:00

"But I do believe that in these economic times, it doesn't make sends for us to spent extra tax dollars, public funds, taxpayer money on elaborate architectural construction when we have real infrastructure needs..."

But don't fret just yet! Calatrava's previous contract was mostly paid for his earier work. The Dallas Morning News reported that the city voted to accept $5,000,000 in anonymous donations in addition to the $2,100,000 funds left unpaid to Calatrava combined with a $3,500,000 in city bond money– giving Calatrava a total of $10,700,000 for a new contract to build a bike and pedestrian component to a new redesign of the bridge, the I-30 Margaret McDermott Bridge.

Reported by the Dallas Observer, Hunt "suggested removing the signature features and instead building a 'plain vanilla' bridge, thereby lowering the cost to $222 million, and then applying the $92 million toward that amount, reducing TxDOT's funding commitment to around $130 million."

Finally, the cost of the original Calatrava design is reported to have been originally as $500,000,000 but reduced down to $314,000,000– Texas' congressional representatives had secured $92,000,000 leaving a bill of approximately $222,000,00...

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Calatrava's new Dallas bridge further troubled due to cable flaws

Calatrava's bridge in Dallas shot down, back as zombie