Securing Funding An Issue For Trinity River Vision Plan

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Fort Worth's city manager supported a call Tuesday for an audit of the expansive Trinity River Vision plan.

City Manager David Cooke, who is a board member for the Trinity River Vision Authority, said the board was still trying to get full federal funding for the project, but there is some question on how much would come to Fort Worth.

Cooke's comments came a day after Mayor Betsy Price became one of the first public officials to step back from complete support for the project.

Price, who has pursued federal funding during trips to Washington D.C., said officials there raised questions she couldn't answer.

"As mayor I owe that to the taxpayers to get answers to questions that affect a project like this," she said. "So we had to ask those questions."

The project to reroute the river, and create an island north of downtown, is dependent on more than $500 million in funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That portion of the budget is what's needed to complete the flood control part of the project.

Despite a commitment to fully funding the project, it was not included for funding this year.

Price said her concern is that bridges currently under construction on dry land are close to being completed, but funding is needed to ensure there's a river channel that will run underneath them.

A spokesman for the Trinity River Vision Authority told CBS 11 that because funding did come through the previous two years, staff had no reason to think it would not be included again in future budget years.