At a Park Board meeting this morning, a few folks got a little tetchy because city staff apparently haven’t been sharing well. Back in April, staff received a report from some hired engineers on what needs to be done to control shoreline erosion at White Rock Lake, near the spillway. But staff didn’t alert the board about the report until September, after citizen Carol Bell-Walton asked why the board wasn’t doing anything about the report. At which point the board was like, “Um, city staff? Can we get a briefing on the dang report already?”
That’s what happened today. You can see the plans for erosion control here. About 1,100 linear feet of the shoreline need help (in addition to some shoreline near the dog park). The plan is to install sheet pilings that look like the below picture. It will be a composite material rather than corrugated steel, so you can expect a charcoal gray, neutral color.
What about White Rock Trail and all the joggers and cyclists? Yeah, we’re going to have some issues. A “notice to proceed” is expected sometime this month. Then come design and procurement. The work itself, whenever it begins, will take about six months. Here’s what the presentation to the Park Board said: “For trail users, the intent is to create an alternate trail route during construction. PKR is working with TPW and TxDOT on traffic control plans.”
What does that mean? It means White Rock Trail is going to be rerouted onto Garland Road. I am not making this up.
This is going to get ugly. You might have heard that a permanent barrier is being installed along the trail to prevent cars on Garland from careening into joggers. The Morning News story about this, published yesterday, said, “TxDOT does not expect the trail to close during construction.” Fair enough. Work on the barrier has started. I saw workers out there this morning when I pedaled past them. The Park Board presentation says the inside southbound lane of Garland will be closed until March 2025. (Which must be a mistake. It has to be the outside southbound lane.)
Then, after the barrier work is finished, the erosion work will begin, though no one is certain exactly when. At that point, the trail will be rerouted onto Garland. So if you’re cycling south—again, on Garland Road—you’ll have a permanent barrier wall on your right and a temporary barrier on your left. On the other side of that barrier, you’ll have death.
Let’s all be careful out there.
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