After more than 30 years without major updates, Lovers Lane near the Dallas North Tollway is finally being transformed. The construction updates will add both more parking spaces and more pedestrian friendly walkways.  

“The last time that section of Lovers Lane [was] repaved was well over 30 years ago, if not closer to 40 years ago,” University Park’s Director of Engineering, Katie Barron said.

University Park has been planning for this project for over a decade, over the past 10 years city officials have reviewed designs and held meetings to make sure the final plan addressed community needs. 

“The reason for the project was replacing aging infrastructure, to add some additional pedestrian improvements, make it Americans with Disabilities compatible and replace the traffic signal,” Barron said.  “There’s not really a safe place to cross the street when you’re in that corridor.”

In order to complete this project, University Park partnered with Dallas County Public City Works.

“They’re helping to pay for a portion of this project. They’re paying for about half of it, actually, and that includes the traffic signal improvements and any pedestrian improvements,” Barron said. 

Before starting the construction the city organized many public meetings with business owners, residents and other stakeholders between 2017 and 2018. The goal of the meetings was to collect feedback. Outside of those meetings, city officials developed three construction plans for the city council to review and decide on.

“We had another meeting for the general public, with the idea being [asking], what do you like about this area? What do you want to see changed with this area? What could we do better to help the design process?” Barron said. 

Despite years of planning, construction faced an unexpected delay during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dallas country requested that the project be put on hold until funding could be secured, pushing back the original start date. 

“The city does not issue debt. We’re a pay-as-we-go city. So if we don’t have the cash, we can’t do it,” Barron said.

Work is currently taking place along Lovers Lane near Douglas Avenue. This busy corridor is known for its local boutiques, restaurants and other businesses. These businesses are experiencing the effects of the construction. 

“There have been a lot more new people because they’re in that traffic so they see us now, we’ve got a little more attention from it,” Manager of Drip Coffee Co, Erica Alicea said. “It’s really just parking that’s been affected.”

While the construction has caused detours, parking challenges and slower commutes, many residents and business owners recognize that the project is necessary to improve the area in the long term.

“It’s been more difficult to get down Lovers obviously, and across to some of the restaurants we like to go to, like Chips or Hudson House,” University Park resident John Toomay said. “So it is more difficult.”

Community members have acknowledged that the infrastructure on Lovers Lane has gone decades without major updates.  Replacing aging water lines, improving traffic signals and adding safer pedestrian crossing will improve the street once the work is complete.

“I’m glad they’re being proactive in fixing things, but it is very disruptive that it’s a busy street, but hopefully they can get it done in a reasonable time and get everything back to normal as soon as possible,” Toomay said. 

While starting this project the team faced some interesting obstacles.

“We’ve uncovered some things we didn’t know were under the street, it hasn’t been repaired in years, and we’ve discovered an old utility line of some sort that was long since abandoned, so we didn’t even know it was there.” Barron said. 

Despite these obstacles, progress continues steadily. The city expects the project to be completed by the end of next spring, close to the end of the school year. Once finished the area will feature improved traffic flow, updated parking and safer crossing for pedestrians. 

“We are looking at the end of next spring. So basically, by the end of this school year,” Barron said.