Traffic News

Major I-30 freeway closure on east side of Dallas begins this weekend

Can Big Lots on Gus Thomasson survive?

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There's a major freeway disruption on I-30 on the easternmost side of Dallas, begining June 23, with a closure that will extend through spring 2024.

As part of the ongoing I-635E widening and improvement project, two major closures are scheduled to start this weekend at the I-30/Gus Thomasson Road interchange.

This part needs to be in bold:

All lanes of north and southbound Gus Thomasson Road crossing over I-30 will be closed through spring 2024. This closure begins on Friday, June 23 at 8 pm.

During this closure, drivers will access Gus Thomasson Road by using frontage roads, then making U-turns at either Galloway Avenue or Motley Drive.

Gus Thomasson Road closure map Map of detours that will be required with the closure of Gus Thomasson Road over I-30 in far east Dallas.TxDOT

The big impact here will be for the many residents of Casa View who use Gus Thomasson to cross over I-30 and shop at the massive Town East area. This represents not only Town East Mall, but a whole slew of neighboring shopping centers and major stores, from Home Depot to Target to Sprouts to Kroger to Town East Ford to Half Price Books to Big Lots, this is serious.

Closures this weekend
In a more temporary closure: All lanes of eastbound and westbound I-30 will be closed overnight on Saturday June 24, from 8 pm Saturday to 11 am Sunday, June 25 for bridge construction. Drivers will be detoured to frontage roads to access the next available entrance ramps to I-30.

Both directions of I-30 at Gus Thomasson Rd., as well as Gus Thomasson and Galloway Avenue cross streets, will be closed. Detours are as follows:

Full closure of I-30 east bound at Gus Thomasson. Drivers headed east on I-30 will be detoured to take the exit to Gus Thomasson Road/Galloway Avenue/Northwest Drive (exit 56A) and travel on the frontage road to get back to I-30.
Full closure of I-30 west bound at Gus Thomasson. Drivers headed west on I-30 will be detoured to Exit 57, Galloway Avenue, and take the frontage road back to I-30.Closure of I-30 east bound connectors to I-635 (exits 56B and 56C). Drivers going eastbound on I-30 will be detoured to the frontage road prior to Gus Thomasson, and take the frontage road to I-635. Drivers headed south on I-635 will be directed to the entrance at Town East Boulevard. Drivers headed north on I-635 will take Town East Boulevard and U-turn onto the northbound I-635 entrance ramp.
Closure of connector ramps from 635 to I-30. Drivers on northbound I-635 who want to go west on I-30 will be detoured to the northbound I-635 exit at Oates Drive (exit 9A) and will have to U-turn to get to the southbound I-635 frontage road, then take that to the westbound I-30 exit at Gus Thomasson. Southbound drivers on I-635 who want to go west on I-30 will take the I-635 southbound exit at Oates Drive and stay on the frontage road, following the same detour to the westbound I-30 entrance at Gus Thomasson.
All lanes on Galloway Avenue at I-30, both north- and southbound, will be closed. Local traffic will be detoured to Barnes Bridge Road, Morningside Drive, Northwest Drive, and Oates Drive.
All lanes on Gus Thomasson at I-30, both north and southbound, will be closed. Local traffic will be detoured to Oates Drive, Motley Drive, and Town East Boulevard.

Drivers are urged to start planning alternate routes and extra travel time in this corridor.

For additional information related to the 635 East Project, visit www.635east.com.

traffic transportation

Crime News

Dallas leaders launch initiative to ensure downtown is a safe place

Photo by Bryan Dickerson on Unsplash

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The City of Dallas and a group of public and private sector leaders led by Downtown Dallas, Inc. (DDI), and the Dallas Citizens Council have launched Safe in the City, a campaign to improve public safety and address homelessness solutions in downtown Dallas.

According to a release, the work was commissioned by DallasNews Corporation Chief Executive Officer and publisher of Dallas Morning News Grant Moise and is based largely on a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) analysis conducted in 2024.

That work organized a group of business and civic leaders and public officials to address challenges with public safety, homelessness, and vibrancy and economic development.

“My goal was to pull a group of people together who had the collective resources and passion to ensure that we put downtown on a better trajectory to ultimately make it as safe and vibrant as we all want it to be,” says Moise in a statement. “With the right leadership in the room, we immediately got to work devising and implementing an action plan.”

The BCG report recommended six measures to ensure safety and security long term, which the Safe in the City campaign combines into three categories: Visible presence, visible interest, and vibrant downtown.

The measures include:

Increased policing and presence: Surveillance cameras and other technological infrastructure will be expanded for proactive crime detection and deterrence.
Increased coordination among police and security entities: All police and security personnel will have access to a shared communication channel to improve incident response and coordination.
Continue push for rehousing:
Expand Downtown Community Court
“De-magnetize” hotspots
Address needs associated with re-entry of formerly incarcerated individuals.

The initiative is in response to public safety and homelessness challenges post-pandemic, and concerns from residents and businesses. Coalition leaders stressed that work has been underway for nearly a year, leading to decreases in crime, and an “effective end” to street homelessness downtown.

“Over the past 15 months, business, civic, and nonprofit leaders were joined by police and security officials to study our challenges and come up with a series of sustainable solutions,” says DDI President & CEO Jennifer Scripps in a statement. “Thanks to our partnership with Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and the Dallas Police Department, we are reporting a 29 percent decrease in overall crime in Downtown this year to date, as well as substantial decreases in quality-of-life reports that the DDI security, homeless outreach, and clean teams address.”

According to BCG projections, full implementation of the six-pronged strategy could yield over $4 billion in incremental property value and generate hundreds of millions in incremental tax revenues.

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Traffic News

Major I-30 freeway closure on east side of Dallas begins this weekend

Crime News

Dallas leaders launch initiative to ensure downtown is a safe place

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