Construction Contract Awarded for Woodall Rodgers Deck Park in Dallas

From: Dallas Morning News

By: Rudolph Bush // August 3, 2009

TxDOT this morning announced the award of a contract to begin construction on the planned deck park over the Woodall Rodgersfreeway that will link Uptown to downtown.

The contract went to Atlanta-based Archer Western to build the 5.2 acre span that is expected to become the city's most lavish park and a critical pedestrian connection between the Arts District and Uptown.

A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 14, according to a press release from TxDOT.
The $44.5 million contract will go toward construction of the main bridge between Pearl and St. Paul over the 8-lane freeway.

Sponsors of the deck park also say that they will now refer to it simply as"the Park" while they work toward selling naming rights to some major donor.

City Hall has long been eager to name the entire park in honor of a donor and to sell off the names of specific amenities planned inside the park.

Similar efforts have been successful nationally in funding significant features in important urban parks.

UPDATE: The deck park is scheduled to open in mid-2011. All of the features (or amenities as parks folks say) are to be in by 2012.