R*E*W*A*R*D offered. A reward is being offered to the first half dozen people who can offer the needed help.

Beyond the multitude of accolades that are bestowed on such efforts to hand over such a Sangreal, there will also be canoe trips for two (or for the faint of heart, tea for two) each for such givings.

Since these TV ads bombarded our city almost a decade ago I'll also bet seeing them now, they'll offer a million laughs.

It has me smiling just thinking about 'em.

Don't expect the Allyn guys to be too quick to respond.

No doubt they'll be called in to work on this project.

Question is, will the "vote no" side be able to raise enough money to do anything?

Jim -- check the court file/record from the lawsuit that was filed over the bond election that found the City could not be sued over the truth (or lack thereof) of the bond election advertising -- just the bond language was actionable. Can't remember the case name but someone else is bound to know.

Jim,
I have read some of the stuff and seen all the pretty watercolors on the Trinity River Corridor website, and the thing that leaps out is that none of it shows the new Corps of Engineers mandated location of the Trinity Parkway away from the east levee. There is no way the citizens of Dallas can vote intelligently on the issue of including or not including a toll road in the Trinity River development if no one knows exactly what it will look like, where will it be, and how much it will impinge on the plain between the levees.

There is no doubt there are many in Dallas who would like the fix to be in on getting this road built. It may be very difficult to counteract the presumed political campaign to approve the parkway, so it seems to me that we must defeat it on technical grounds. How will this parkway affect the flood control capabilities of the Trinity River levees? How far will it extend into the flood plain? How deep will the city have to dig to build a channel suitable to contain flood waters in a 100-year flood, a 500-year flood?

If, as some of the supporters are saying, the parkway will be behind a decorative wall to separate it from the park areas, how much will that wall reduce the water transporting capacity of the Trinity flood plain? As you mentioned in one of your articles, there is the consideration of scouring - a narrower water channel will result in a faster flow of water through the narrow area, according to the Bernoulli pronciple, and this will increase erosion through the river channels. In flood conditions, a walled-off parkway would reduce the overall width of the flood plain, so even normal flood conditions would produce a faster and more destructive water flow. This would most likely damage the park equipment far more than the city is banking on, increasing maintenance costs.

The Trinity Parkway: high or low? Will it be higher than the levees or lower? Will it go above the existing bridges or below? If above, how high will it have to be? If lower, how many times is it likely to be flooded as it passes beneath the existing bridges? What about the Calatrava bridges? I assume the parkway would go under them since they will be really tall. What about the older bridges the city is trying to have the US government pay to have torn down and replaced? Did this go through? If not, and if we can keep it from happening, that might kill the parkway right there.

I cannot believe the Corps of Engineers has let this go on as long as they have. When you look at the flood plain effects, and the problems of fluid dynamics and water flow, there are so many potential land mines, I just don't see why they haven't said "Not only NO, but HELL NO."

I hope you keep after them, and I think concentrating on the real physical flood problems if the road is built would be an excellent path of investigation. With all the building still going on up north, the water run-off in heavy storms and periods of heavy rain will raise the level of flooding in Dallas and other low-lying areas. That is why we have the levees, not to supprt a highway.

In closing, it is absolutely necessary to force the Trinity River Corridor office to reveal, in pictures and/or scale models, exactly where the Trinity Parkway will be, how much of the park area it will take over, what it will look like, its exact route (and elevation - under/over which bridges), in short, just how different it will be from the project we were sold back in 1998. They are lying through their teeth about the extent of the changes, and I'd guess they are terrified some judge somewhere, or a Colonel in the Corps of Engineers, will force them to show everyone what they are planning. After November, if we lose, it will probably be too late to stop the juggernaut. At the very least, we have to make them tell the truth.....riiight.....

It occurs to me that you could perhaps learn of any redesign of the Trinity Parkway direct from the horse's mouth: the Army Corps of Engineers. They would have to receive any plans for changes/alterations to the parkway to ensure the leveees are not compromised and the function of the Trinity flood plain through the city is not diminished.

I don't know if these drawings exist, or if you could obtain copies from the Corps, but at some point we need to know just what pig in a poke they're wanting us to buy this time. Obviously, this needs to be done well before the election, to allow for public discussion. Not that the parkway people necessarily want any public discussion.....