Greenway Trail progress continues despite FM 1976 construction

With concrete walkways already poured at Converse North Park, progress on the Converse Greenway Trail continues, with a planned October completion date.

The hike-and-bike and walking trail is 10 feet wide and stretches 6,600 feet from a starting point near Converse Lake to a link into the running track around Converse North Park. Work crews with Clearfield Construction are framing and pouring portions of the Converse Lake side of the trail, having already completed the link at North Park.

Assistant City Manager Manny Longoria recently briefed council on progress on the $1.45 million trail, funded with $1,092,000 from the Metropolitan Planning Organization, with the city contributing $371,000 from the remainder of the 2015 park bond.

“The work actually started on North Park. At the end of the trail, coming from City Park at FM 1976, you see the workers and the clearing as the trail goes up to City Park,” Longoria said.

One challenge to the finish of the trail is construction on FM 1976, from Walzem Road to Loop 1604. Currently, the roadway is a one-way route, and will flip once crews lay asphalt on west side, and begin to reconstruct the east lane.

“The challenge is going to be the intersection, at the crosswalk. (Texas Department of Transportation) is redoing that road and they expect to be finished about November,” Longoria told city council at its June 16 meeting. “Our contractor will be finished with his piece likely in October, so there’s going to be about a one-month gap before we can go in and get access to 1976 so we can install the crosswalk.”

Originally, plans were to build a pedestrian bridge over FM 1976 that would link the two paths. But contractor bids on the bridge came out to about $600,000 “and that was more than we could afford in the project budget,” he added.

In the interim, the city and contractor agreed to install concrete island “cul-de-sacs,” wide sweeping trailheads that allow for turnarounds at both ends of the Converse lake trail and the FM 1976 portion of the North Lake trail.

“We’re going to install (concrete) cul-de-sacs at the intersections so people can turn around. We’re not going to wait for them to do the road,” Mayor Al Suarez said. “As soon as we finish it, we’re going to open it. They just won’t be able to cross (FM 1976) until TxDOT is done, and we can get the crosswalk done.”

Suarez said TxDOT would not allow a traffic signal at the intersection, so a crosswalk with blinking caution lights will be installed for trail users.

Once the Greenway Trail leaves the Converse City Park area, it will pass under the Union Pacific railway bridge and turn right to cross Gibbs-Sprawl, before crossing FM 1976 at the traffic light.

The trail cannot cross FM 1976 parallel to Gibbs-Sprawl because of deep drainage culverts along the north side of 1976. The trail will cut right, across Gibb-Sprawl, then allow trail users to activate a crosswalk signal to cross FM 1976.

“It’s not like a sidewalk. At 10-feet wide you can hike and bike, you can run, so it’s a multi-purpose path for our citizens to enjoy,” Longoria said.

“I was out there when we were taking the pictures, and we saw … deer, and I saw a real big hawk. So this section of trail is kind of like a preserved area,” Longoria added. “I think the public is going to enjoy this particular section.”