One reason why we needed the Trinity toll road, so we were told almost two years ago, is that there wouldn’t be enough money to fix the infamous Deadman’s Corner on the S.M. Wright Freeway without approving the highway (75F on your Mapsco, or after the jump — a spiffy Google satellite image.)

Turns out that wasn’t necessarily so. The City Manager wants to spend $34 million from next year’s bond package to fix the corner (page 13 of the 73-page PDF/PowerPoint) The Wright corner is so bad that one highway expert has said: “I don’t think you would ever have seen that built in North Dallas. I’m ashamed as an engineer that that turn exists.” (Some nifty reporting by Robert Wilonsky at the Observer, by the way.)

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So we go from the Trinity being essential to fixing Deadman’s Corner to not being necessary at all. Which makes me wonder: If the city wants to fix Wright without waiting for the toll way, how far away must the toll way really be?