The Department of Transportation has awarded a $ 2 million grant to support a proposed walking trail in downtown Dallas.
Once complete, the Dallas Cultural Trail is expected to connect the Arts District, Deep Ellum, and Fair Park neighborhoods. The pathway, intended for pedestrians and cyclists, will be dotted with art installations and historical markers focused on each community’s cultural ties, Deep Ellum Foundation Executive Director Stephanie Keller Hudiburg told WFAA.
The $2 million grant is expected to help cover the project’s design and initial planning expenses. The anticipated five-mile trail is forecast to cost around $40 million, WFAA reported.
Before the actual path comes to life, the city plans to roll out a digital experience of the trail. The virtual initiative will serve as a quasi-test program for the subsequent physical trial.
Hudiburg said construction on the trail could begin anytime in the next five years.
“As Dallas County continues to grow, it is critical that we make the right investments in our communities to upgrade infrastructure and expand safe public transit,” said Rep. Julie Johnson, announcing the grant in a January 22 press release.
“I am grateful that this funding coming to the Deep Ellum Foundation from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will do just that. In Congress, I will continue to look for ways we can bring funding back home to uplift our neighborhoods.”
Plans to build a downtown Dallas trail date back to 2018. Multiple local nonprofits, including Fair Park First, Friends of Sante Fe Trail, and the Dallas Arts District, have partnered with the Deep Ellum Foundation for the project.
“The Deep Ellum Foundation is grateful to have applied on behalf of our incredible coalition behind this effort to build a trail in Dallas, putting the richness of our distinct neighborhoods’ art, culture, and history at the fingertips of all who travel it,” Hudiburg was quoted as saying in the same press release.
“We are so thankful to the USDOT, TxDOT, and the City of Dallas for their investment, leadership, and support of this community-led initiative.”
Dallas has looked to trails in other cities for inspiration, like the 2.5-mile Freedom Trail in Boston, Hudiburg said, per WFAA.
“We think it’s going to be a boon for cultural tourism, but we do also think it’ll be a fun and engaging way for Dallasites to experience somewhere in their own city with a fresh take,” she added.