No More Whitewater in Dallas

"The Dallas City Council voted Wednesday to spend almost $2 million to partially remove the whitewater feature in the Trinity River that opened and closed in a matter of days in the spring of 2011 after the Army Corps of Engineers said it rendered the river unnavigable," reports Robert Wilonsky.

The decision effectively ends the saga that began from day one of the "Standing Wave's" existence.

The city has spent years grappling with the $4 million whitewater feature beneath the Santa Fe Trestle. The issue was never with the feature itself, which kayakers continued to use even after the city officially closed it, but the narrow bypass channels. They were supposed to offer boaters a calm alternative to the human-made rapids. But, instead, they were far more turbulent than the Wave itself.

As far as the corps was always concerned, the bypass channels rendered the river unnavigable. And that violated the permit that allowed the city to construct the Dallas Wave.

Last Planetizen checked-in with the project, the city was reacting to a failed legal effort to force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to change its designation of the river. Now the city has been forced into choosing the cheapest of three options: $7.4 million to completely remove the feature, $4.2 million to modify it, and $2 million to partially remove it.