Most of the road changes studied for a proposed Dallas Stars arena at The Shops at Willow Bend would bring traffic back to roughly what it would be without the project, but four locations still came up short, according to a preliminary memo prepared for city staff by traffic consultant Fehr & Peers.
The Oct. 2 technical memo, posted on the city's Willow Bend Redevelopment Advisory Committee page, looks at the busiest hour before a weeknight hockey game and the hour after a sold-out concert at 33 intersections between Preston Road, Midway Road, Parker Road and the George Bush Turnpike.
It assumes full buildout of the arena and surrounding entertainment district by a 2031 opening, which the memo calls a conservative approach, and assumes no added public transit.
Where the fixes fall short
The memo names four trouble spots:
- Park Boulevard and Plano Parkway, where heavy eastbound and northbound traffic exceeds the intersection's capacity. Longer turn lanes and temporary lane closures helped only marginally. Ideas not yet studied include a fourth lane in each of those directions, reversible lanes, and a tunnel from northbound Plano Parkway into the site.
- Plano Parkway at the Dallas Parkway frontage roads, where the northbound approach stays over capacity even after lanes are reassigned. A fifth northbound lane would help but would likely need more right-of-way.
- Park Boulevard at the Dallas Parkway frontage roads, where queues back up to the northern tollway exit even with more green time. A flyover from northbound Dallas Parkway over the tollway into the site is floated as a less traditional option whose feasibility has not been reviewed.
- The southbound tollway exit at Park Boulevard, where about 550 arena-bound vehicles would have to cross two lanes in 350 feet among roughly 660 others already on southbound Dallas Parkway. The memo says that weave would not be safe and suggests a traffic signal, or moving or limiting the nearby site driveway.
After events, the plan relies on cones, turn restrictions and special signal timing to steer drivers toward the tollway and other high-capacity roads. Even so, the memo says congestion at Park Boulevard and Dallas Parkway cannot be fully mitigated and raises closing two of its approaches during the post-event hour.
Costs and neighborhoods
A summary table rates most turn-lane, driveway and restriping work in its lowest cost tier, $1 million or less. Widening northbound Dallas Parkway at Plano Parkway and a related improvement at Park Boulevard each fall in the $5 million to $10 million range, with right-of-way impacts not yet studied. The memo does not say who would pay.
It names Glen Meadows and Wyndham Hill as the neighborhoods closest to the site and lists options to keep event traffic and parking out, such as resident parking permits, event-day closures, turn limits and temporary no-parking signs. Other ideas include more bus service, shuttles to the Parker Road and Trinity Mills rail stations, remote parking and a 7:30 p.m. puck drop.
