The cyber ether was buzzing yesterday about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision that the Trinity River levee wasn’t safe enough to build the highway. After the jump, a sample of what we found:

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Steve Blow at Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper, who has been as staunch a defender of the highway as is humanly possible, doesn’t see why this is a problem. “If I’m reading this right, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is saying what the Trinity project planners have been saying all along: The levee system needs work.”

• Angela Hunt, the city councilwoman who led the failed referendum to stop the highway, wrote on her blog: “Knowing that our levees do not meet the Corps’ new safety standards, I think it’s irresponsible to lobby the Corps to speed up what should be a thoughtful, deliberate safety review of an untested engineering design like the toll road.”

• Oddly, very little from another big-time toll road supporter, D magazine, save for a short item about the Corps’ decision. Though it did have a big scoop that the 1st & 10 bar in Lakewood was reopening soon. Guess they don’t read our blog.

Matt Pulle at Texas Watchdog: “Like the stud who just got shot down in the bar, Mayor Tom Leppert and other city leaders are trying to keep up appearances after this latest setback to the toll road, a project they felt would be a boon to development. But they can’t deny reality much longer.”

Dallas’ Socratic Gadfly: “Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert said a few days ago he was unhappy with the Army Corps of Engineering for its allegedly slow pace on checking the quality of Trinity River levees.
Well, now that the Corps has found major levee problems, ones too big for even Perot money, or John Wiley Price shakedown best buddies, to fix, he’s probably wishing he’d kept his big mouth shut.”

Pete Oppel in Pete’s Place, who isn’t quite as sure the road is dead: “This, to me, is more like someone who wants to repaint his frame house but then discovers there’s some rotten wood in parts that needs to be replaced. So, before he repaints his house, he needs to replace the rotting wood. The Corps this time around is simply telling the city to replace the rotting wood in its levees before doing anything else. But the Corps didn’t tell the City — at least, not yet — it can’t repaint its house.”