Pedestrian bridge for Mockingbird Lane delayed

After a pedestrian was killed in a deadly hit-and-run along Mockingbird Lane in Dallas for the second time in a year, some are wondering what happened to the city’s plans to build a pedestrian bridge over the busy street.

When Larry Walton shopped for condos near Mockingbird Station, he says the promise of a pedestrian bridge enticed him to buy across the street.

“I was at the groundbreaking and we've looked forward to it ever since,” Walton said.

That groundbreaking was on June 18 2013. At the time, the city said the bridge would be done in 2015. Today, there’s some staging but no bridge.

Dallas city councilman Philip Kingston says he's anxious to see the bridge completed especially after two hit-and-run deaths in about a year along the heavily-traveled stretch of Mockingbird.

“I don't know what to tell them anymore,” he said. “I keep asking for updates and I’m not getting them. What is the hold up? That project is over ten years. If it were a tax-payer funded hotel, it would have been built by now.”

But the project pre-date Kingston’s term at city hall. Angela Hunt was the councilmember at the time of the original groundbreaking.

“It's very frustrating,” said Hunt. “The fact is the city of Dallas has been moving the date of this bridge construction year after year after year after year.”

Dallas' Public Works Department points to a major delay with the sale of a nearby hotel which impacted a land deal and says the project is particularly complicated.

“I understand the complexity of bureaucracies but this is ridiculous,” said Hunt. “I think that if there were the will among city staff to move forward, this would be done.”

The latest timeline shows a March or April 2017 completion date.

“It’s coming,” Walton said. “I have confidence they'll see it sooner than they thought.”

The city's public works department tells FOX 4 the bridge project is a priority. It's waiting on DART to approve a study that was done to see how the construction would impact the light rail system. After that, it expects heavy construction to start in a few weeks.