The Dallas City Council has authorized roughly $33 million in funding for two major park projects.
The Council green-lit the funding at a meeting on February 12, with $24.6 million in federal funding for the Five Mile Creek Greenbelt and the remaining $8.7 million to support a construction services contract for Trinity Strand Trail, expand The Loop, and add a pedestrian bridge at the end of Hi Line Drive.
Fort Worth-based civil contractor Fain Group Inc. was awarded the contract to connect the Circuit Trail and the Katy Trail to the Trinity Strand Trail, beating out five other firms that bid on the work. The project began in 2002 when the Friends of the Trinity Strand Trail began working on it.
Around $8.6 million of the $24.6 million in federal funding will cover the design and construction of a trail stretching from Hampton Road at Kiest Boulevard to Westmoreland Road at Pentagon Parkway.
“The outdoors belongs to all of us, but for residents in southern Dallas, access to these vital green spaces isn’t created equally. Only 54 percent of residents that live within the Five Mile Creek watershed area have a park or trail within a 10-minute walk of home, far below the citywide average of 73 percent,” reads a description on the Five Mile Creek Greenbelt project website.
Once completed in 2030, the Five Mile Creek Greenbelt will have a 17-mile trail and three new parks along Five Mile Creek in Oak Cliff. The trail will also connect to two light rail stations, three hospitals, and two colleges.
“The Five Mile Creek Greenbelt is bringing critical infrastructure to connect neighborhoods throughout southern Dallas and Oak Cliff to the rest of the city’s trail system. This important milestone helps us continue to build momentum for the project, and brings us closer to realizing the 17 miles of new trail that will provide greater access to the benefits of the outdoors to more than 180,000 people in the Southern Dallas community,” Texas State Director of Trust for Public Land Molly Morgan said in a statement, per Dallas Business Journal.
The Loop will connect 39 existing miles of trails to 11 new miles. According to Circuit Trail Conservancy, the group leading the initiative, the Hi Line Connector trail in the Design District has already been completed.