From their website: The state of Texas wants to know what you think of I-345, the 1.4-mile elevated freeway that separates downtown from Deep Ellum in the name of connecting I-45 to Central. How do you use it? Do you want it gone? Something needs to be done with the aging thoroughfare, and the Texas Department of Transportation has scheduled three meetings at the beginning of next month to hear from the public. This is the beginning of the long-awaited feasibility study, an early (formal) step in what could be the most significant highway demolition project in the state’s history. It’s expected to take 18 to 24 months.

A significant movement to remove the highway has been brewing since at least 2010, when urban planner and current DART board member Patrick Kennedy joined developer Brandon Hancock in spit-balling a plan for future downtown development. That highway occupies an enormous amount of space—240 acres!—that could be used for plenty of other things: housing, employment, retail, restaurants, parks, you name it. It was also coming to the end of its line structurally. In 2013, Kennedy wrote in this magazine about the possibilities. Wick Allison, our founder, eventually launched a super PAC with the purpose of getting the highway torn out.

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