Considering that, just a couple of months ago, Mayor Park Cities all but guaranteed that the Trinity toll road would be built by 2013 — ahead of schedule! — a bunch of delays certainly seem to have cropped up lately. Like paying for it and making sure it’s safe.

Not to worry, though. The mayor knows who the culprits are. It’s those evil bureaucrats in Washington, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and they are taking entirely too long to do what needs to be done. Geez, what is this? Rocket science? We’re only building a highway here. That it’s a highway inside a flood plain is only something that obstructionists like the Corps would worry about.

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More on recent developments after the jump:
I’ll give this to Leppert – he knows how to put on the full court press. In the past week, he has enlisted U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has showed exactly no interest in this project in the previous two years, to strong arm the Crops to get the dirt flying.

Then, he apparently called in some markers with his pals at Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper to get this bizarre story written: “One result: Some large urban-area developments have been left twisting in the wind as the [Corps] engineers study the plans in excruciating detail.” Nice writing, too, equating flood prevention with twisting in the wind.

Hopefully, when the city finally gets around to announcing the budget disaster currently in the making, Leppert will be equally as clever in solving that problem. Maybe he can blame the Corps for the slump in sales tax receipts, too.