I'm trying to break myself of a bad habit: referring to some boondoggle or ill-conceived project as The Most Dallas Thing Ever. But. But. This city makes it so hard.

I'm referring — of course — to the Margaret McDermott Bridge over the Trinity River. Not the slabs of concrete carrying vehicles over the piers and beams along Interstate 30. I mean the pair of $115-million bike and hike paths attached to the bridge, which are only going to get much more expensive because a few bargain-hunters at City Hall cheaped out on some pretty important stress tests.

The hike-and-bike paths bracketing the I-30 bridge are attached in part by cables affixed to the two arches recycled by architect Santiago Calatrava, who sold City Hall and Trinity Trust donors the very same erector set he peddled in Italy years earlier. They were supposed to open about a year ago. Except the engineer says they're so dangerous, because of "fatigued" cable anchors vibrating apart in high winds, that you're not allowed to step foot on them.

I tried Thursday evening to get an up-close look at the anchors and the dampers attached to the cables meant to cut down on those bad vibrations. But I didn't get as far as other colleagues who had recently tried.

At both sides — along Riverfront Boulevard to the east and Beckley Avenue in the west, at perhaps both roadways' least-scenic stretches — crews have erected barricades running the width of four entrances. Then there are the signs: "DANGER" and "No Trespassing" and "Violators Will Be Prosecuted" and "Private Property." Oh, please. We paid for that property, because we're taxpayers and more than $90 million in federal tax dollars funded those hike and bike paths.

A couple of weeks ago we found out that, after two years of some pretty nasty blame-gaming between the city and the Texas Department of Transportation and Huitt-Zollars (the bridge's engineer of record), there's still no fix in sight for the cable anchor system, just a couple of possibilities. Put simply, one involves replacing the anchors. One involves replacing the entire cable system.

1 / 2When you finally wind yourself around the bike path attached to the Margaret McDermott Bridge, you find yourself here — next to a dead Red Coleman's, in the path of traffic turning off I-30 onto Riverfront. Good luck!(Robert Wilonsky / Staff writer ) 2 / 2The Beckley side is no more attractive.(Robert Wilonsky / Staff writer)

I found out last week how long a fix could take and how much it might cost.

Huitt-Zollars' vice president Charles Quade told the city that depending on the fix, repairs should take between eight and 15 months. And it could cost — again, an estimate here, because the contractor hasn't been consulted — between $2 million and $6 million.

All because the city skipped some stress tests, which, as the Dallas Observer first reported in January, would have cost around $30,000.

I asked the city more than a week ago who's coughing up the money. After some nudging Thursday, I finally got an answer from a city spokeswoman, who said she got it from Trinity Watershed Management.

"At the appropriate time, the City will pursue the recovery of all sums due to the City from all responsible parties."

Let me interpret that for you: The city will pay for it. Says so in a letter TxDOT sent to Trinity Watershed Management on Nov. 21, 2016:

"Per the Advance Funding Agreement signed by the City on July 16, 2012, the City of Dallas is responsible for any project cost overruns associated with the Margaret McDermott Bridge and will be responsible for the cost of the schedule impacts and remedial work."

Arches rise over the unusable and apparently very unsafe pedestrian and bike path of the Margaret McDermott Bridge, which spans the Trinity River. (David Woo / Staff Photographer)

Look. Until January, I didn't think twice about this expensive yet otherwise unremarkable bridge. I don't do much schlepping between the bail bondsmen and the dead Red Coleman's on Riverfront and Oak Cliff Mirror & Glass on Beckley. Even when it's not a million degrees out.

But I'm interested now. Mostly because we might spend millions more fixing a $115-million thing only a few people wanted and no one ever really needed.

"We must keep in mind that doing nothing is always an option," Lee Kleinman, chair of the council's Mobility Solutions, Infrastructure & Sustainability Committee, told me Thursday. He wants city staff to come to his committee next month and explain what the hell's going on.

At least someone's getting some use out of the bike path along the Margaret McDermott Bridge. (Robert Wilonsky / Staff writer)

"Why spend any more money on it," Kleinman said, "when there are so many more needs in the city?"

I did find someone else near the bike path Thursday, a few feet from a gravel parking lot off Riverfront. She said her name was Xena. She sat in the shade of the overpass, wearing a long-sleeved plaid shirt, black pants, a woven white skullcap, no shoes.

She asked why I was down here. I said I wanted to see the bike path no one could use. She said she wondered what that was, as she came here often. "To meditate," Xena explained. She said it was quiet — "unless they're here," she said, motioning toward the Ofo bikes, sleeping bags and belongings stashed beneath the bike path's curlicue toward the busy street.

The bike path as it approaches the east side of the Trinity River levees, on the Riverfront side. That's my new friend Xena on the right. (Robert Wilonsky / Staff Writer)

She said she liked the view. I asked if she was referring to the egrets frolicking in the stagnant water and tall grass. "The sky," she said, motioning toward the washed-out blue. She then turned her attention back to the well-thumbed Bible she was reading — Isaiah 24, which talks about how "the city of confusion is broken down."

So help me, The Most Dallas Thing Ever.