A walking and biking connection between downtown and Fair Park that has sat unfinished for more than three years at a DART rail crossing would cost about $2.2 million more to complete under a change order the Dallas City Council considers Tuesday.
The consent item would raise the city's contract with DDM Construction Corp. for the CBD Fair Park Link, from Hall Street to Main Street, by $2,214,096.23, to $8,152,001.10. It would also extend the contract by 240 days, to Dec. 31, 2027. Almost all of the added money, $2,202,897.23, would come from the DART Six-Year General Mobility Program Fund, with $11,199 from a water capital fund.
How the project stalled
The council awarded the original $5.84 million contract in September 2021, and construction began in March 2022, according to the agenda information sheet from the Department of Transportation and Public Works.
In June 2022, DART told the city that no work could happen inside the railroad crossing until a Preliminary Hazard Analysis was finished and approved under updated federal rail safety requirements. DART had approved the original plans in February 2018, but the new rules required more safety analysis and design changes.
Once everything outside DART's right-of-way was done, the city suspended construction on March 17, 2023.
DART issued a no-objection letter in May 2025 that allowed work in its right-of-way to resume. An administrative change order approved Oct. 7 added 1,510 days to the contract at no cost so the contractor could remobilize and order long-lead parts for the Elm Street crossing signal system.
