The Dallas City Council voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to kill the long debated Trinity Toll Road project as a part of a larger park plan for the river.
The council voted 13-2 to reject "Alternative 3C", as it was termed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which ends a more than decade long debate that divided the city on the future of the project.
Council members Rickey Callahan and Casey Thomas were the two votes to keep the toll project alive.
Callahan said his area of southeast Dallas, which includes Pleasant Grove, stood to gain by improved mobility promised by a toll road inside the levees of the Trinity which runs northwest to southeast through Dallas and geographically divides the northern and southern half of the city.
"I challenge the mayor and my fellow council colleagues to find a way to get people living in my district the needed mobility and access to jobs in Dallas," Callahan said.
The rejection of the toll road aspect is seen as the precursor to the council approving a public private partnership to manage the proposed Harold Simmons Park inside the Trinity River.
Debate on management of the park project continued Wednesday but a vote was expected by midday.