Set along one of the Park Cities busiest streets, the once familiar stretch of Lover’s Lane now looks more like a construction zone than a commercial area. Bulldozers, temporary walkways and lane closures are seen daily, but for University Park, the mess on the street is the beginning of a major upgrade.

This is the beginning of the Miracle Mile project, which aims to improve safety and traffic flow. These issues have been affecting this area for more than a decade, and required a major redesign to solve.

“ So we’ve been talking about that stretch of Lovers called Miracle Mile, for several years. The planning for that really started in 2019,” City Manager Robbie Corder said.  “We were trying to address multiple issues out there, a lot of it was parking, traffic flow and pedestrian movement.”

As planning continued, staff held meetings, reviewed designs and evaluated what mattered most for Lovers lane. Staff looked at how the street functions from day to day. 

“ There was a heavy emphasis on parking, and how many parking spaces are out there and can we add more,” Corder said.  “Also moving more cars through Lover’s Lane, and traffic flows. The other big component is how to make it more friendly for pedestrians and safer for people to walk.”

Parking has been one of the biggest issues. With different blocks closing at different times, the city has offered alternative parking and a golf cart shuttle. 

“Each block is closed off,  but we have actually secured a lot of parking at 4141 Lovers Lane and along Scotland Yard,”  UP Community Information Officer Paige Ruedy said. “So people can park there. And then we also have a golf cart shuttle that we’ve committed to through the end of the year, because we’ve heard that that lot is a little bit far for people to walk.”

Keeping business accessible during construction was a difficult challenge for the city. As crews worked on sidewalks, parking areas and the roadway access points changed frequently.

“Take a project of this scale where you’re removing the street, the sidewalk, the parking areas and trying to keep businesses open at the same time,” Corder said. “We also try to put in plans to help out with that. Our communications group is actively promoting businesses.”

The main plan was reshaping the street completely, from lane widths, to turns, along with updating pedestrian crossings and improving how people move through the area. The process required looking at speeding limits and sidewalks. 

“The wider a street is, the more comfortable you as a driver are to go faster. So that’s why freeways have higher speeds because the lanes are wider and it’s much more open,” UP Director of Engineering Katie Barron said. “You can safely travel that fast. So one of the things that we focused on was the radius of the traveling.”

With Dallas County covering half the cost and the city of Dallas planning related improvements on the west side of the tollway, the project involves redesigning roads and sidewalks that connect to drainage systems outside of University Park.

“Down by the Dallas North Tollway, that drainage actually goes into Dallas because the city of Dallas is on the other side of the tollway,” Barron said. So we had to coordinate with Dallas to address the grading and the parking lot to be able to channelize water.”

The project also includes upgrades to the corridors lighting and traffic signal systems, introducing new equipment designed to reduce maintenance delays. The updated signals use a built in alert system that notifies staff immediately when something goes wrong. 

“All of our traffic signals now have, it’s called AI, but it’s a different AI. It’s not artificial intelligence, it’s an advanced warning system,” Barron said. “something goes out in the traffic signal, a person doesn’t have to go out and see what is out. It actually sends our traffic department a text message.”

The project added multiple protected crossing points and improved access between the north and south side of the street.

“There’s one at UPM Entry Crossing Lovers Lane as well. We press the button and it activates a flasher for cars to stop so the pedestrians can cross safely,” Barron said. “So we’ve added two other places for pedestrians to cross safely.”

Even with noisy construction, this project is ahead of its timeline, and those involved are committed to keep the project going and hoping for long term improvements.

“This is a project that was well executed, that the public enjoys and that the city can be proud of,” Barron said.