Dallas' New Trinity river Plan. (Austin, West: 2015, neighborhoods, school)

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by Dallaz

It can be done. Just like they turned Turtle Creek into a parkway and Buffalo Bayou in Houston into a park as well. Houston is expanding their Buffalo Bayou park. That’s a very great example of a park that frequently floods. The vast majority of the time, the floodplain is dry. Why not turn it into a park…?

I know about the moving of the Trinity River. You can tell it’s unnatural based on how straight the channel is. The natural course of a river has bends and oxbows.



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ6PoGXLTQ4

Buffalo Bayou and Turtle Creek aren't comparable to the Trinity, as both are much smaller waterways with smaller flood zones. They both already have tons of development on their banks that is at a higher elevation. The two times I can remember that Buffalo Bayou Park flooded, it took months and a lot of money to clean it up, since a ton of silt and dirt and other detritus washed up and was left behind.

Any Trinity plan would be, at minimum 5x bigger than Buffalo Bayou Park and when the floods come the clean-up would be immense. The river is flat and the flood zone is huge. Could it be done? Sure. Is it smart? I think the hundreds of millions this would cost could definitely be better used elsewhere.

[dallasboi]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

Buffalo Bayou and Turtle Creek aren't comparable to the Trinity, as both are much smaller waterways with smaller flood zones. They both already have tons of development on their banks that is at a higher elevation. The two times I can remember that Buffalo Bayou Park flooded, it took months and a lot of money to clean it up, since a ton of silt and dirt and other detritus washed up and was left behind.

Any Trinity plan would be, at minimum 5x bigger than Buffalo Bayou Park and when the floods come the clean-up would be immense. The river is flat and the flood zone is huge. Could it be done? Sure. Is it smart? I think the hundreds of millions this would cost could definitely be better used elsewhere.

The Trinity park is being designed to have no clean up after a heavy rain......

https://mvvainc.com/projects/harold-simmons-park

Scroll down to the flood diagrams.

[Dallaz]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

Buffalo Bayou and Turtle Creek aren't comparable to the Trinity, as both are much smaller waterways with smaller flood zones. They both already have tons of development on their banks that is at a higher elevation. The two times I can remember that Buffalo Bayou Park flooded, it took months and a lot of money to clean it up, since a ton of silt and dirt and other detritus washed up and was left behind.

Any Trinity plan would be, at minimum 5x bigger than Buffalo Bayou Park and when the floods come the clean-up would be immense. The river is flat and the flood zone is huge. Could it be done? Sure. Is it smart? I think the hundreds of millions this would cost could definitely be better used elsewhere.

I mean, Trammell Crow Park is already in the floodplain. Just expanding what is already there would be great. A lot of trees are unlikely due to it slowing down the flow of the river when flooded. I already see people using the floodplain for running, biking, and picnicking. The time I went, the parking lot was packed. The city already has unpaved and paved trails there. I think it is very worth exploring the idea of putting a park there. Going down there myself completely changed my perspective. At one point, I did think there was no point of putting any type of park space there after years of delays...

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by Dallaz

I mean, Trammell Crow Park is already in the floodplain. Just expanding what is already there would be great. A lot of trees are unlikely due to it slowing down the flow of the river when flooded. I already see people using the floodplain for running, biking, and picnicking. The time I went, the parking lot was packed. The city already has unpaved and paved trails there. I think it is very worth exploring the idea of putting a park there. Going down there myself completely changed my perspective. At one point, I did think there was no point of putting any type of park space there after years of delays...

That's really what should be the focus - expanding trails and the like. The reason that nothing has been done is the obsession with a big, fancy park with a bunch of amenities. Trammell Crow is there, but it's really just a flat landscaped area with a few places to sit. That's because when the river floods, any major infrastructure and amenities will be damaged or destroyed.

There's no doubt they can improve what's down on the Trinity to some extent, but at the end of the day adding a bunch of stuff that will be damaged/destroyed each time the channel floods doesn't seem like a great idea, especially considering that money could go to building/expanding other parks.

[TheOverdog]

The violent flooding around downtown is caused by outflows around downtown - the Trinity is actually a really slow flooding channel upstream. I'd actually like to see the results of the Mill Creek Outflow channel construction, due to complete by 2025, especially since the outflow is quite a bit south of downtown. It may lead to the end of the Trinity filling the entire area between the levees around downtown, except in extremely rare events. To that extent some additional public amenities in the flood plain, built to withstand an occasional slow-rolling flood event, might be possible and economical.


Supposedly it's the largest water project going on in the western hemisphere currently.


Of course all that water has to go somewhere, so the violent floods will move a bit farther south to White Rock Creek. Who knows what the consequences of that will be.....

[Dallaz]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

That's really what should be the focus - expanding trails and the like. The reason that nothing has been done is the obsession with a big, fancy park with a bunch of amenities. Trammell Crow is there, but it's really just a flat landscaped area with a few places to sit. That's because when the river floods, any major infrastructure and amenities will be damaged or destroyed.

There's no doubt they can improve what's down on the Trinity to some extent, but at the end of the day adding a bunch of stuff that will be damaged/destroyed each time the channel floods doesn't seem like a great idea, especially considering that money could go to building/expanding other parks.

I believe the idea for the new park is to incorporate flooding. I think most of the real amenities will be a long the levees.

[Dallaz]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

The violent flooding around downtown is caused by outflows around downtown - the Trinity is actually a really slow flooding channel upstream. I'd actually like to see the results of the Mill Creek Outflow channel construction, due to complete by 2025, especially since the outflow is quite a bit south of downtown. It may lead to the end of the Trinity filling the entire area between the levees around downtown, except in extremely rare events. To that extent some additional public amenities in the flood plain, built to withstand an occasional slow-rolling flood event, might be possible and economical.


Supposedly it's the largest water project going on in the western hemisphere currently.


Of course all that water has to go somewhere, so the violent floods will move a bit farther south to White Rock Creek. Who knows what the consequences of that will be.....

Very good point about the Mill Creek Tunnel. It is a very impressive project. I totally forgot about the outlet being at White Rock Creek south of Downtown and not to the Trinity River. That will help out a lot. Luckily, the outlet is in the Great Trinity Forest. That's basically Dallas' sponge that helps to soak up a lot of the flood waters in heavy rain. A lot of wetlands in that area as well.

[rabbit33]

Originally Posted by Dallaz

Very good point about the Mill Creek Tunnel. It is a very impressive project. I totally forgot about the outlet being at White Rock Creek south of Downtown and not to the Trinity River. That will help out a lot. Luckily, the outlet is in the Great Trinity Forest. That's basically Dallas' sponge that helps to soak up a lot of the flood waters in heavy rain. A lot of wetlands in that area as well.

Not to mention dead bodies and marijuana patches.

[Dallaz]

Video from today:

New talk about old Dallas Trinity River park plan


Not really surprised but dramatic change as in to what they’re planning to build here now. At least they’re building the lakes as they raise the levees. So, you are right Dallasboi and they are building one aspect of the original plan.

[dallasboi]

This is old old but it' reveals the HISTORY of the ambition behind it!!! Whatever we get will be iconic and well received...... Even if it's drastically scaled down.

It probably will be scaled down but not DRASTICALLY.... Even a scaled down version would STILL be HUGE!!!

https://youtu.be/Pvx4NVpeEFI: