White Oak Bayou’s trail extension opens
Laying out the particulars for a new trail section along White Oak Bayou, Chip Place saw something out of place where the trail crossed the Heights Hike and Bike Trail near T C Jester.
It was the stairs connecting the two trails.
“Look at that,” Place said, pointing from the new stairs to the stellar view of downtown Houston. “I said ‘Oh my god, we’ve got to capture this.’ ”
Starting Friday, the stairs — along with two miles of fresh trail to the southeast of TC Jester — are ready for runners, cyclists and others who want a new view of the area.
“It is always fun to create a park and see how people will use this,” said Place, managing director of capital programs for Houston Parks Board, the nonprofit that promotes parks in the city.
Part of the parks board’s Bayou Greenways 2020 efforts, the new segment of the White Oak Bayou Greenway runs from Studemont Street and the Heights trail to the T C Jester trail. Crews worked Thursday to spruce up the trail for its debut, and scrape off mud washed onto it by recent rains. Maintenance of the trails is handled by the parks board, with some financial help from the city.
The trail’s $4 million construction cost, which included re-sloping parts of the bayou’s banks where freeways span the water, was covered by the Memorial Heights Reinvestment Zone, a city tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ, that captures property taxes in the area for local projects.
The local funding, common on many of the trail projects, allows for the greenways project to use its $100 million in voterapproved money for other segments. Across Houston, the parks board has identified $220 million in bayou trail projects, with $120 million coming from nonbond financial sources. Ultimately, seven bayous across Houston will have trails uninterrupted by city streets for cyclists, runners and others to use.
“It’s going to be fantastic,” said Curt Morris, 36.
Morris, who lives in the Heights, said trail access is one of the things that made the neighborhood appealing to he and his wife. As a bicyclist, “having something right out your door” makes riding less of a hassle, he said.
“It’s great we’ll have more places to ride,” he said.
‘Another world’
The new two-mile section — minus an unfinished spot below Yale Street — extends the White Oak trail to about 11 miles, making it the largest continuous portion completed thus far. By mid-2017 that will lengthen to 15 miles once key connections to downtown and the trail is extended from Antoine to the city limits. Once all of its segments are connected, Brays Bayou Greenway will be the longest of the trails at 30 miles, from the Houston Ship Channel to Eldridge in far west Houston.
“I really do believe Houston is at such an exciting point in the public realm,” said Beth White, the parks board’s president.
White, who took over the nonprofit nearly six months ago, moved to Houston encouraged by the “vast” opportunity to develop a large-scale trail system.
“All of the things that cities need to be resilient are being looked at,” she said. “Open space, alternatives in mobility, it’s all right here.”
Though the enormity of Houston is inescapable, with Interstate 10 flowing atop parts of the new White Oak trail segment, the bayous are, Place said, “another world.” On Thursday morning, as trucks slowed on I-10, a blue heron lifted off from the bayou a few yards from the trail.
“You don’t realize how close everything is,” said Catherine Butsch, communications director for the parks board.
Easy access points
The 10-foot concrete paths curve with the White Oak bayou, sometimes snaking through wide floodway openings, while at other times closing in within steep banks. Portions bordered by trees remove the city from view, before opening at points to major intersections and key connections, as well as the occasional downtown view.
Where possible, details reflect the area. At Yale — where crews are still working to pour concrete for the trail, meaning detours for the first few weeks the trail is open — entrances to the trail are inlaid with bricks from the original Yale Bridge, which the Texas Department of Transportation is rebuilding.
Trail crews are working beneath the vehicle bridge as workers continue installing steel along the new span, which is not expected to open for another year.
At Yale — a burgeoning retail corridor — and other locations, rail makers are balancing creating a linear park meant somewhat for retreat but making it accessible. As a result, Place said designers opted for access points at Heights and Yale, but also Harvard, one block east of Heights. The connection is a easier link for residences in the area, avoiding the more crowded Heights intersection.
Both entry points to the trail are important, Place said. At Heights, cyclists can access a bike lane north along the road, while someone getting off a Metropolitan Transit Authority bus can easily get from the bus stop to the trail.
The local connection away from the busy street, meanwhile, might be a more appealing spot to move from the bayou to the road for nearby residents.
“What good is it if people that close can’t get there,” Place said of the trail system.
Connecting trails
Friday’s opening, though significant, is just the latest in a series of ribbon cuttings that parks officials have planned. By mid-2017, White Oak Bayou Greewnay will be extended from its current terminus at Alabonson to the city limits near Hollister Detention Basin off Little York.
Later next summer, work to tie the White Oak Bayou Greenway to Buffalo Bayou Trail near the University of Houston-Downtown and the city’s central business district streets will finish.
Meanwhile, White said the parks board will move on all the projects along the bayous when practical.
“We work where opportunity presents itself and where timing lines up,” she said.