Next Phase of Republic Square Park Restoration Begins Dec 1st

Austin Parks Foundation Tackles Next Phase of Republic Square Park Restoration.

Street trees and berms to be removed, new trees planted and pathways installed.

Central Auction Oak, August 2008

Contact: Charlie McCabe, Austin Parks Foundation, 512.965.1960 or cmccabe@austinparks.org

The next phase of improvements for historic Republic Square will begin on December 1^st. The work, expected to take 30 days, includes berm and tree removal, regrading and revegation, tree planting, irrigation installation, and pathway installation.

TBG Partners designed the restoration plan, working in conjunction with Austin Parks Foundation and the Republic Square Partners, which includes residents, business and property owners and government officials who confer monthly. The cost of this phase is just under $100,000 and is being funded through a percentage of ticket sales from the Austin City Limits Music Festival, as well as donations from both individuals and the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association.

Austin Parks Foundation intends to recycle or reuse all of the materials removed from the park. Soil from the berms will go to Waterloo Park to help restore turf areas, and the concrete from the sidewalks and the trunks of the four street trees will be donated to Austin Green Art.

This phase will continue the project begun in August 2008 to improve the health and viability of the three historic Auction Oaks in southwestern corner of the park. Through August and September, the Auction Oaks were pruned and treated; sidewalk, retaining walls and parts of the berms were removed; and the soil was tilled and amended around each of the three Auction Oaks.

The Auction Oaks mark the site where the first auction of city lots was held in 1839 by Edwin Waller. The trees have suffered since the 1950s, when the park was a parking lot, and on through the 70s when the park was rebuilt and the hill-like berms were added over a significant portion of their root zones.

Future park improvements include the installation of a rock and chain enclosure to protect the Oaks area (expected in early 2009) and the installation of a deck (which also doubles as a stage) surrounding the central Auction Oak. The deck will give visitors a place to relax in the shade without impacting the oaks. It will be modeled after the deck created to protect the Survivor Tree at the Oklahoma City Memorial. Austin Parks Foundation hopes to raise the remaining $200,000 needed to construct the deck over the next year.

The Austin Parks Foundation is thrilled to tackle this next phase of improvements to historic Republic Square and welcomes donations for the deck project @ www.austinparks.org or at 512.477.1566.

Future Walnut Creek Trail Update

 

The future Walnut Creek Trail will ultimately be a 16-mile, 12 foot wide concrete trail from Balcones District Park in NW Austin to Govalle Park in East Austin.  This runs through and connects to trails in Walnut Creek Metro Park, but doesn’t replace any of those mountain biking trails.

Based on a presentation by Parks and Recreation Project Staff on November 20, 2008 to the Bicycle Advisory Council, here’s an update on the project. There are currently three phases planned:

1) North Walnut Creek Trail Phase 1 is 3.2 miles of trail from Balcones District Park to Walnut Creek Metro Park with a total cost of $3.3M. As of 11/20/08, the Parks department is in the final stages of permitting and the city is expected to submit plans to TXDOT for review and approval in December 2008. TXDOT review generally takes 12-16 weeks and if it is approved, the city could go out to bid in April 2009. Contruction is expected to be completed in April 2010.

 

Map of Phase 1 - 3.2 Miles

 

 

2) North Walnut Creek Trail Phase 2 is 1.7 miles of trail from Walnut Creek Metro Park running under Lamar Blvd to the TCEQ and Girl Scout buildings at 1-35. Total cost is $1.9M. Funding was approved by City Council on June 18, 2000 for construction design and the parks department is currently preparing the scope of work for consultant selection.

3) South Walnut Creek Trail is 7.2 miles of trail and runs from Govalle Park in SE Austin to the new tennis complex at Walnut Creek Greenbelt/Sports Complex on Johnny Morris Rd just south of US 290. Total cost is $10.1 M. The request for qualifications for the design consultants went out to bid early this year and City Council is expected to approve the successful bid at their meeting on December 11, 2008.

The total trail to be constructed is 12.25 mile with these three projects at a total cost of $15,332,102. The trail is a 10 foot wide concrete trail with trailheads in Phase 1 at major intersections and facilities including Balcones District Park, Mopac Access, North Austin Medical Center, Austin Community College and Walnut Creek Metro Park.

Trails Symposium Day 2: Field Trip

 

Today I went with about 40 others on a 15 mile (or so) bike trip along the River Trails, from N. Little Rock to the Big Dam Bridge (biggest ped/bike bridge) and back through woods, meadows, park land, public easements over private land (with several organizations that have bike commuters and facilities). Fantastic. Here’s a few pictures, the leaders and speakers were great.

Trails Symposium: Friends of Katy Trail Dallas

Bikers to the left, walkers and runners to the right

One of the speakers I was pleased to hear on Sunday during Day 1 of the National Trails Symposium was Eric Van Steenberg, Friends of the Katy Trail in Dallas.  Since 1997, this non-profit has raised over $21 M to build a 3.5 mile, dual trail (one path for runners, one path for bikers, rollerbladers, etc.) along a section of central Dallas from the American Airlines arena to just south of SMU.  They have a unique working relationship with the parks dept and have raised much of the money through family foundations in Dallas (private foundations, vs. 501c3 public non-profits like the Austin Parks Foundation.)  Amazing.

Plaza area connection to another park

I’ve ridden the trail a few times when visiting family in Dallas and have found the improvements amazing – plazas, ramps and landscaping connecting the 30 acres of the trail corridor (formerly a railroad right of way) to another 95 acres of parks along the way.  I’ve attached a few pictures taken on my last ride during the Thanksgiving weekend in 2007.

Photos from Sat Copperfield & Tarrytown Park workdays

Alice from Copperfield Nature Trails and Elizabeth from Tarrytown Park sent us their photo albums from their successful (and chilly) Saturday morning volunteer workdays.  Volunteers at Copperfield (photos here) worked on blazing another portion of their trail while volunteers at Tarrytown planted trees (photos here)  with help from the Parks Dept Forestry team.  Congrats to both groups on very successful workdays.

Day 1 – National Trails Symposium in Little Rock

Charlie here, reporting after the first full day  at the National Trails Symposium in Little Rock AR. This event happens every two years and is brought to life by the American Trails non-profit.  In 2004, it was in Austin and I co-hosted one of the outdoor workshops.  I’m just here to learn and after four sessions today, I’m sorting through all of the tidbits I picked up.  

I did manage to sneak away during lunch and check out some of the Arkansas River Trail system, including a cool park called the Medical Mile (underwritten by Health organizations) and one of the converted bridges – a railroad bridge built in 1884 and retrofitted for hike/bike use this year.  Pretty cool.  More tidbits as I pull them together, but I’m looking forward to a tour on the trail by bike (about 20 miles) tomorrow afternoon.

Sparky Park Puts Up a Wall (and its great!)

Sparky Park is a former Austin Energy substation that has been converted to a pocket park. The North University Neighborhood Association began work over three years ago to develop concepts for the makeover, which removed all of the towers and equipment, but left the really cool substation building (to be redone in a future phase).  Then several wireless phone companies wanted to put some towers there on one corner of the park and were willing to help fund the development of the park and beautify the wall around the wireless towers.

The result is a magnificent wall created by Berthold Haas, funding in part by the City of Austin’s Art In Public Places and in part by the donations held from the wireless companies donated to the Austin Parks Foundation and earmarked for this project.  The result, nearly complete, is fantastic!  Our Flickr collection has even more photos of this park and the wall.

Another Successful Project Build A Park

Once again, the Austin Parks Foundation and SEATAG (SE Austin Trails & Greenways) partnered with the office of Student Life at Austin Community College to host the 7th annual Project Build A Park.  For the third time, we worked at Country Club Creek Trail in SE Austin inside Guerrero-Colorado River Park to build more of the 1.5 mile trail, remove invasive plants and trees and pick up and haul away tons of trash and debris.  Over 370 students and friends and family member came out for two three hour shifts.  

We spread 60 truckloads of road base (a combination of sand, gravel and rock), filled up two big roll-off dumpsters and cut down a variety of re-sprouted trees and bamboo.  The trail is looking really good now and there’s another 2 or more miles to build, but our thanks to Dot and crew from ACC Student Life, Malcolm, Jim and the gang of SEATAG and all of the volunteers who came out and helped out.  You made a huge difference in a single day.

Playtime

Since my husband and I recently added a two-year-old to our household, I’m re-exploring Austin’s parks with a new perspective. One of my favorite neighborhood parks has long been Shipe Park, and it still is. Shipe is a small park, but I find it has everything I want. Here’s what I think makes a good park to bring small children to:

• A shady playground with shaded seating for parents, too
• Working, unlocked restrooms
• Enough play equipment for the number of users, so the kids aren’t trampling all over each other
• Some natural areas for kids to escape the pre-fabricated plastic playground and explore the wonders of plants, bugs, creeks, etc.

I’d be interested in hearing what you think makes a park a good plays for tots, and what other Austin parks rate highly on your list for them.

ClifBar Greenotes Barton Creek Cleanup & Concert – Nov 1

Our thanks to ClifBar and REI along with Keep Austin Beautiful for helping us host the ClifBar Greenotes Barton Creek Greenbelt clean-up.  95 volunteers turned out to the Zilker Park Polo Fields Picnic Area to sign-in, grab trash bags and then clean-up portions of the Barton Creek greenbelt from a number of trailheads including Zilker, Spyglass, Loop 360, and Twin Falls/Gaines Creek.  Over 80 bags of trash, 1 tire, quite a few hubcabs, several signs on poles and two shopping carts were included in the haul.  Then folks enjoyed an hour long concert by Ben Kweller.  Thanks to all who made this possible especially Beth from REI and Chris from Music Matters.