Dallas is starting over on the engineering for its long-planned conversion of Uptown's McKinney Avenue and Cole Avenue from one-way pairs to two-way streets, and the City Council is set to vote Wednesday, Oct. 28, on a new design contract worth up to $3,552,041.
The resolution would hire Halff Associates, Inc. to pick up the design work. The city's previous engineer on the project, Kimley-Horn & Associates, Inc., was hired by the council in December 2023 under a contract that eventually reached $3,690,641.18.
According to the council's agenda materials, the city ended that contract on Aug. 6 because the two sides could not agree on the scope and fees for a third supplemental agreement. Money still set aside under the old contract would be released and used for the new one.
What the project would change
City staff describe the project, also called the Uptown McKinney Avenue/Cole Avenue Couplet, as a partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation. It would turn these one-way segments into two-way, three-lane undivided streets:
- McKinney Avenue from Allen Street to Harvard Avenue
- Allen Street from McKinney Avenue to Carlisle Street
- Carlisle Street from Allen Street to Cole Avenue
- Cole Avenue from Carlisle Street to Harvard Avenue
The work also calls for moving the existing trolley tracks and the overhead wires that power the trolleys, along with new signals, signs and pedestrian improvements. The city would manage both design and construction.
Timeline
The schedule in the agenda materials has design starting in January 2027 and finishing in August 2027. Construction would begin in October 2027 and wrap up in October 2029.
The project's roots go back several years. The Regional Transportation Council approved more than $43.5 million in federal funding for projects in the city's 2017 bond program in October 2017, and the council signed an agreement with the council of governments over federal funds for this conversion in March 2018.
