Rolling detours underway on downtown Austin trail
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Heads up, joggers and cyclers: The Trail Conservancy is cautioning rolling trail detours are underway on the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail through Feb. 28.
The detours and reduced trail access that kicked off earlier this week are due to trail maintenance repairs, The Trail Conservancy said in the announcement. Those improvements are happening just west of Lamar Boulevard.
The trail maintenance repairs over the next week aren’t the only causes for detours around the trail. Ongoing work on the Longhorn Dam wishbone bridge construction project has led to various detours since construction kicked off last July.
As of Dec. 17, the latest detours for the Wishbone Bridge is having all trail users using the designated sidewalks on the east side of Pleasant Valley Road. The west side of the bridge is closed, as is the unpaved area west of Pleasant Valley Road.
The third trail-adjacent project underway is a slope stabilization plan for a portion of Barton Creek next to the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail, opposite Lou Neff Point. A slope failure happened back in May 2018 following a flooding incident, impacting roughly 230 feet of the streambank slope, per The Trail Conservancy.
The Austin Parks and Recreation Department along with the Austin Watershed Protection Department began work this month are expected to wrap up construction this summer. Improvements include a new spur trail being built by the two departments, along with delineated paths near the baseball fields and separated paths along Toomey Road.
Officials noted cyclists and pedestrians might be required to stop briefly to allow construction traffic to proceed across the detour path.
