Wycliffe Avenue's Two-Year Reconstruction Starts Its Lane Closures Today — and Westbound Fitzhugh Loses Its Turn

HIGHLAND PARK — A two-year construction season opens today on one of the Park Cities' busiest cut-throughs. The Town of Highland Park is moving forward with its Wycliffe Avenue bridge reconstruction project, and lane closures and traffic control commence on Tuesday, November 10, according to the City of Dallas District 14 bi-weekly newsletter read in full by this desk. The project will require the full closure of Wycliff Avenue inside the town limits, and westbound traffic on Fitzhugh Avenue in Dallas will not have access to Wycliff during the work, which the newsletter projects at two years.

The town's own project FAQ, read in full this run, explains why the road has to come apart at all: the existing dam and infrastructure under Wycliffe have been classified as a 'high hazard' by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the project is, in the town's words, first and foremost a public-safety initiative. Work centers on Wycliffe Avenue between St. Johns Drive and Lakeside Drive, where the existing dam-roadway will be removed and rebuilt as a bridge. Portions of Wycliffe, Fitzhugh, St. Johns Drive, Lakeside Drive and Turtle Creek Boulevard will see closures or restricted access at various phases — though not all at once — under a phased schedule with detours, signage and traffic control.

The finished road will look different as well as safer: the final design reduces Wycliffe Avenue from three lanes to two, with a dedicated left-turn lane added across the bridge, and the town's analysis shows no significant change in traffic flow under that configuration. For Dallas drivers, the practical Tuesday fact is simpler — the Fitzhugh-to-Wycliff westbound move is gone from today, and the Oak Lawn and Highland Park surface-street pattern around Turtle Creek starts its long adjustment. Project updates are posted on the Town of Highland Park's official Wycliffe Avenue Reconstruction Project page.