Nearly 20 years ago the city of Dallas began to enact a project to not only beautify, cleanup, and help protect the shoreline of the Trinity River from flooding. Called the Trinity River Project, the project includes around 10,000 acres worth of sports fields, trails, nature centers, and recreational facilities, 6000 acres of that is made up by the Great Trinity Forest.
As part of the project the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge began construction in December of 2005, it later opened in March of 2012, with a total construction cost of about $120 million. The bridge is a cable-stayed suspension design with a single 400 foot central arch pylon holding up the whole thing; it was named after noted philanthropist and oil heiress, Margaret Hunt Hill. Along with its counterpart, the Margaret McDermott Bridge they have been hailed as the symbols of the new, modern Dallas. Both projects were designed by Santiago Calavatrava, an architect, structural engineer, sculptor, and painter hailing from Spain.
Even though its construction was supposed to begin in 2011 and was set to be completed by 2014 the Margaret McDermott Bridge has had some funding delays, leading to it still being under construction, it is currently expected to be finished sometime in 2017. The project will replace another bridge originally built in the late 1950s/early 1960s and will link up to carry Interstate 30 with 10 main lanes of traffic.
In the end the Trinity River Project and its two suspension bridges will be a powerful symbol of civil engineering and city planning, and a purposeful facelift for downtown Dallas.