State transportation officials want to hear from the public about what they hope to include in the feasibility study for Interstate 345, the 1.4-mile elevated freeway between Interstate 30 and Woodall Rodgers.

Texas Department of Transportation will begin its two-year study to analyze options for the next steps. One of those options will include the removal of I-345, a proposal that’s gained momentum in the past few years as a way to reconnect Deep Ellum and South Dallas with the downtown core.

The state in 2014 began its $30 million project to rehabilitate the freeway, which officials expect will extend its service life 20 years, said Ceason Clemens, deputy district engineer for Dallas’ TxDOT district.

Now, it’s time to plan for the freeway’s future, she said.

For nonprofit Coalition for a New Dallas, that future should include stitching together neighborhoods once divided intentionally for purposes “rooted in race,” said Miguel Solis, the coalition’s executive director. The nonprofit continues to lead a crusade against I-345, and a push to replace the 240 acres between Deep Ellum and downtown with mixed-income, mixed-use development.

“It’s important that we recognize [that] allowing one road to dictate where people have to go for jobs is a very archaic way of thinking about how to plan a city,” Solis said. “We need more employment opportunities in southern Dallas. We know that. And it’s incumbent upon our leaders to make sure that our southern Dallas residents have that.”

TxDOT officials plan for the study to include a few options so far for the highway: removing it, depressing it, reconstructing and elevating it with ramp changes or leaving it as is. They said they’ll seek more suggestions with public input.

Patrick Kennedy, who has spearheaded the coalition’s own study on I-345, said the coalition will continue to push TxDOT to expedite the process. He said he hopes there’s substantial turnout at the public meetings to get more people involved in the advocacy.

“We want to improve public engagement and the public conversation around what we do with our transportation dollars,” Kennedy said, “because that has a fundamental impact on the viability and function of our cities.”

But while the advocates for removing I-345 have secured supporters in city leadership, some state officials aren’t sold on whether the remaining connections could handle the regional demands.

State Sen. Royce West, a Democrat who represents Dallas, said the removal of I-345 “is a nonstarter" for him without a “viable” alternative, such as depressing the interstate rather than tearing it all down.

West said southern Dallas residents still need I-345 to commute to their jobs in northern parts of the city, including the Medical District. He accused the plan of putting developers’ financial opportunities above southern Dallas needs, and worries south Dallas could be left out of the conversation just as it was when I-345 was built.

“It’s ridiculous. Makes no sense at all," West said.

Mo Bur, district engineer for Dallas’ TxDOT district, remains skeptical. In the examples used to demonstrate that cities can indeed tear down a freeway successfully, he said it’s unusual to remove one that links together two other interstates, in this case I-75 and I-45.

“You’re saying that you want to remove something in the middle,” Bur said. “We don’t know what the implications are. That’s something that we have to study.”

Meetings

Monday, Dec. 2

6 to 8 p.m.

7 p.m. formal presentation

St. Philip’s School and Community Center, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Dallas

Tuesday, Dec. 3

6 to 8 p.m.

7 p.m. formal presentation

CityPlace Conference Center, first floor (Lakewood Room)

2711 N. Haskell Ave., Dallas

Thursday, Dec. 5

10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Noon, 4:30 and 7 p.m. formal presentations

Sheraton Dallas Hotel (Dallas Ballroom)

400 N. Olive St., Dallas