Contentious Community-College Project Gets Under Way in Texas

An ambitious and costly community-college construction project that has been the subject of fierce disagreements is getting under way again in Fort Worth, Tex., according to the city’s Star-Telegram newspaper. Construction has been stalled while critics and proponents debated whether the undertaking was a boon or a boondoggle.

The project, much modified, will expand Tarrant County College’s new campus in downtown Fort Worth — it currently occupies the former RadioShack headquarters — by building across the Trinity River in an effort to link rich and poor neighborhoods and help create a vibrant downtown. About $103-million still needs to be spent to put up new buildings on bluffs over the river, as well as to create a controversial sunken plaza that will connect two sides of the campus by dipping below street level.

The college’s trustees gave the project a green light after hiring a property developer to analyze where it stood and whether backing out made sense. He took a long-term view and persuaded the trustees that the project’s costs weren’t out of line with the college’s space needs over the next two decades.