DALLAS - Now that the Dallas Cowboys have launched their first season in their new $1.2 billion stadium in Arlington, the city of Irving is preparing to implode the team's old home - Texas Stadium - and use the site to stage a massive freeway reconstruction effort.
The Cowboys, who played their final game in the 37-year-old stadium in Irving in 2008, opened the regular season yesterday at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
The largest domed stadium in the world, and considered the most expensive, Cowboys Stadium was built with Arlington bond financing amounting to $933 million, including interest. Additional funding came from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the National Football League.
Built in 1971 at the cost of $35 million, Texas Stadium became a landmark, surrounded by freeways including U.S. 183, known as Airport Freeway. That is the highway that will be expanded to as many as 18 lanes, requiring relocation of businesses on the route.
The Irving City Council this week is expected to hire a Dallas demolition company to implode the old stadium for $5.8 million.
The Texas Department of Transportation is already using the land around the stadium as a staging area for the highway project expected to cost more than $500 million.
Funding will come from TxDOT, the Federal Highway Administration, public-private partnerships, and anticipated toll revenue. Construction of sound walls to buffer freeway noise is scheduled to begin in December.
Aging businesses along the existing freeway have already begun to move in a process that is expected to take years. City leaders hope to improve the curb appeal of many of the stores, hotels, and restaurants that have seen better days.
City officials expect to lose about $382,000 a year in tax revenue from the closure of the businesses but hope to make that up with more lucrative development in the future.
An overlay district that will seek to improve the aesthetics through new rules for construction.
Two other big construction projects that are expected to boost Irving's development are the new State Highway 161 tollway and Dallas Area Rapid Transit's light-rail Orange Line.
The tollway will intersect Airport Freeway and bring traffic south from the President George Bush Turnpike. The North Texas Tollway Authority plans to build and finance the final section of SH 161.
The Orange Line that will connect downtown Dallas with Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport has already prompted so-called transit-related development along its path.
Boasting triple-A ratings from Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's, Irving is not holding back on its capital construction program in the midst of a recession.
The city is building a bond-financed convention center in the upscale Las Colinas business district and hopes to finance related developments when bond market conditions improve.
The ultimate use of the old Texas Stadium site is still up in the air. A DART station on the Orange Line is in the works, and an outlet mall is planned in the area. But so far, no major project has surfaced in the weakened economy.
