WFAA-TV

Trinity River in Dallas

Dallas voters decide November 6th whether to build a toll road inside the Trinity River levees.

Much of the debate centers on how much land a toll road would cover.

At the widest point, the North Texas Tollway Authority plans show the road, the dirt berm — or ledge — and the slope would stretch 360 feet into the floodway near Sylvan Avenue.

The roadway would have to start at what's called the toe of the levee and reach out 240 feet.

The slope from the top of the berm to the floodway surface accounts for another 120 feet.

News 8 showed the plans and distance marked off to former Dallas County Judge Lee Jackson who supports the toll road and spoke for the group, "Vote No Save the Trinity."

He believes the park and toll road can coexist.

Jackson said, "Here there will be places where we'll have active uses that are near the roadway, in other places there will be open space and the active spaces will be far away on the other side of the river."

But after showing the plans and flag markers to Brooks Love with the toll road opponents, Trinity Vote Yes, he added the opposite view.

"Now imagine having 100,000 cars right here going past you and you are over there having a picnic.  Tell me that is not going to affect your enjoyment of this park," Love said.

Marking off the distance showed something else.

The toll road would cut into the existing lake.

But the NTTA drawing shows there space between the road and the existing lake.

Toll road opponents have been critical of the accuracy of such drawings.

Jackson responded, "It's not because somebody is deliberately making the park and the road look closer, it is because it is still a project that is in the works."

Voters who really want to be informed can come out to Crow Lake Park on Sylvan Avenue inside the levees and look for themselves.

E-mail bwatson@wfaa.com