3 Calatrava bridges in Dallas

[RaStyyle]

Santiago Calatrava's bridges are part of the Trinity River Park development. The 1.2 billion dollar development will include the 3 bridges, 2 lakes and several parks and recreational areas.

Here's a rundown. The bridges will replace the I35 bridge, I30 bridge, and one is an extenstion of Woodall Rogers frwy.

http://xs27.xs.to/pics/05181/TrinityRiver.jpg

http://xs27.xs.to/pics/05181/oakcliff.jpg

I30 Bridge: It will rise to 300' at the center arch and will span 1,100ft. It will have 11 main lanes, 1 reversible HOV land, and 4 lands of collector/distributor road.

http://xs27.xs.to/pics/05181/I30Bridge.jpg

http://xs27.xs.to/pics/05181/ih30.jpg

http://xs27.xs.to/pics/05181/IH30Bridge02.jpg

Woodall Rogers Extension Bridge: Recently named the Magaret Hunt Hill will rise to 400ft and span 1,870 ft. It will have 6 main lanes. Bridge construction should begin this year and end in 2008.

http://xs27.xs.to/pics/05181/WRBridge01.jpg
I35 Bridge: This is what it will look like but the specs aren't available yet.

http://xs27.xs.to/pics/05181/MODEL8Slan.jpg

[empersouf]

Calatrava's works looks always good, do you have some rends?

[RaStyyle]

Just put them up. I believe the first I30 and Woodall Rogers bridges are funded but the I35 is still in limbo.

[FM 2258]

They need to do something about IH-35E, the lanes south of downtown are to damn narrow. Why in the hell is that? Hopefully that bridge will have normal sized lanes.

[JohnnyMass]

amazing!!!!!as always...

[carfentanyl]

The Escalade with spinners and Louis Vuitton interior for a famous rapper is the Calatrava for a city nowadays. Flashy, but so unoriginal...

I'm getting Calatrava tired...

[612bv3]

When's this project going to start?

[_ViNcE]

well it looks good, but kind of simple

[Bibelo]

newsflashl! Watch the material being used! 3 new Calatrava bridges near Haarlemmermeer (netherlands) are allready starting rusting.

[Ellatur]

erasmus is still the best :)

[DuskTrooper]

Awesome! I wish we'd get bridges like that!

Unfortunately, I don't think the Trinity has as much water as in the pic, though.

[Giorgio]

its been made in typical calatrava style. love it

[louisianacharm]

Awesome! I wish we'd get bridges like that!

Unfortunately, I don't think the Trinity has as much water as in the pic, though.

i wonder if they will widen the river or something, because there is no way they can make a park named after a river, if the river looks like a stream

[RaStyyle]

Awesome! I wish we'd get bridges like that!

Unfortunately, I don't think the Trinity has as much water as in the pic, though.


i wonder if they will widen the river or something, because there is no way they can make a park named after a river, if the river looks like a stream.

Its looks more like praire land now. Good news is, part of this billion+ dollar development includes turning the land into two urban lakes with the river flowing around it.

[I-275westcoastfl]

Yes i saw this on the Fox4 news they are actually going to build those bridges that i didnt know. The bridges are part of a multi-billion dollar project to widen and make the trinity river like a lake in the downtown area, which is great cause currently it looks like a big drainage ditch. The project would include many stores, homes, condos, and marinas. Though risky the project would make downtown f**king awsome the skyline is great and at night is excellent this project would totally change dallas and san antonio can forget their precious river walk this is going to be waay better if the whole project goes through :cheers1:. The rendering you have are crude the ones i saw were better.

[rantanamo]

Don't be fooled by the simple look of this bridge. The lattice work will be incredible. Keep in mind that the central arch will be over 400ft tall
http://www.trinityrivercorridor.org/assets/images/WRBridge01.jpg
http://www.trinityrivercorridor.org/assets/images/WRBridge02.jpg

To explain the project further: The Trinity River in Dallas has always been sort of a nuissance and blessing. Its the main source of water in DFW. DFW's huge abundance of large reservoirs come from it. Its numerous creeks, super green landscapes(east of stemmons) and decents hills were carved by it. Originally the river curved and sweeped to the east of where it is now. It ran about where Dealy Plaza is now. Old pics of the river show a really pretty, tree covered river that looks a lot like the Trinity further down in south Dallas. The problem was that it would flood downtown occasionally. A more people moved to Dallas, this became a problem, so the main river channel was shrunken and moved into a straight line, well west of downtown. Part of the meander was left above surface( can be seen in the Fashion District and Market Center area). Downtown it is underground and resurfaces southwest of Fair Park where it meets back up with the main river in the Great Trinity Forest. Can't give the exact year, but it was in the early 20th century. There was still flooding, so levees were later built, which still stand today and give the current look.

http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3024

The problem still is that the basin floods big time when it rains and floods the areas downstream. There is even still the threat of downtown flooding.

http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1766

So now you get the new Trintiy River Project. Most just see park and bridges. The new plan is really about flood control. The bill that could push the park and flood control along immediately are in congress right now. Its is likely to pass as the Trinity is very important to the whole DFW region and many in the state all the way down to the Houston area. The plan calls for beefier levees to hold water, upstream damning, two large lakes, reverse flow channels and wetlands at the head of the Great Trinity Forest. All designed to stop flooding.

Just so happens that these elements may be placed in several configurations. One of which would give Dallas two downtown lakes the size of White Rock Lake(Dallas' greatest urban park IMO), reverse flow channels that can take boaters back to where they started, white water areas that can be used for recreational rafting/canoeing/kayaking, and several areas that need to be terraced. So what will Dallas do with these? Create a huge park bigger than Central Park in New York that will take advantage of these features. Amphitheaters, sport complexes, equestrian center, educational center for the river and forest, recreational lakes, whitewater park and more will go in the park. For those that think it can't happen, the money was already voted upon for the park itself. Problem is, the park must wait for the flood control, which must wait for the congressional bill, which had to wait on several ecological studies that are finally finished. Once the bill passes in Nov, work can commence on the flood control and then the park.

One thing Dallas wanted to do was make a statement with the park. There is also the problem of 2 interstates, a US highway cross the park and its lakes. The other crossings are historical, beautiful viaduct type bridges that are being restored as we speak. The highway bridges though are old, ugly and due for replacement. So Dallas decided that spanning the park would be best and least impactful. So the signature bridges were thought up. The bridges required lots of funding from several sources. Finally, two of these have their funding and have been designed. The other awaits the upcoming transportation bill. The bridges had to wait for the (Booooooooooo, hissssssss) Trinity Parkway to be designed. This will be a tollway that runs inside the levee of the downtown side of the river/park. Trust me, we hate it, though access points to the park will be decked thankfully. Now that this is done, the final engineering is being done.

The first bridge, Woodall Rodgers extension will begin construction in December. The bridge will be called the Margaret Hunt-Hill Bridge after the big donor that loved the bridge so much, she donated design costs out of her pocket. A friend of her's, also named Margaret, did the same for the second bridge(expected to start in early 2006). So the first two bridges are nick-named "The Margarets". Should be fun. This project will totally change the look of that side of downtown, as well as most skyline pics that one sees of Dallas.

The last piece to all of this is adjacent development. Zoning changes have been made upon the shores of the parks, and developers are talking to land owners. There are some outstanding urban neighborhood plans like the Trinity Meander plan which will be much like the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Some projects that have started include the FW Avenue plan, Trinity Townhomes(Oak Cliff) and the Cliff Towers renovations in Oak Cliff that will have a hellafied view. Can't wait, and seriously hope that the last two bills can pass.

[Arpels]

wonderful bridges, Calatrava is amazing!!

[FJP]

I like the bridge of the extension of the Woodall Rogers Freeway, nice bridge with 400 ft of altitude, Do you have more renders of it?
Oh, and to I-45? any new bridge?

[rantanamo]

no I-45 bridge. That one crosses the river far far south of downtown where the river is much more narrow and there is nothing but wilderness around.

Here are some close ups of Woodall Rodgers, now the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, showing the complicated lattice work.

http://www.trinityrivercorridor.org/assets/images/WRBridge02.jpg
http://www.trinityrivercorridor.org/assets/images/WRBridge03.jpg
http://www.arcspace.com/architects/calatrava/woodall_rodgers_bridge/5.Calatrava-bridge.jpg
http://www.trinitycommonsfoundation.org/bridge.jpg

[Corinth940]

Any more updates on "The Margarets?!!!"

[spyguy]

The Margaret looks very good.

[Manu84]

Ohh Yeah the Master Calatrava find a new home for his new creations

[alabamagreg06]

Such a big deal has been made of these "signature bridges" that I expected something more interesting. One is somewhat cool but the other two look like the St. Louis Arch but somewhat flattened...

[rantanamo]

It could be said that all arches look like the St. Louis arch.

[Arist]

The approaches to the span are building up

http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/showthread.php?t=7676

[Jim856796]

Construction began on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Spring 2007. And about the two other bridges, how are they going to build those? They would simply close the existing bridges to traffic and then build the new bridges.