City continues work along Walnut Springs linear park/trail

City continues work along Walnut Springs linear park/trail Main Photo

13 Mar 2023


City of Seguin, Quality of Life, News

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today
Darren Dunn

(Seguin) — The city of Seguin is moving forward with its improvement work along the Walnut Springs Hike/Bike Trail.  The Seguin City Council recently got an update on the repairs and expansion work being done along the linear park. 

City Engineer Melissa Reynolds says the city is wrapping up work to repair a bridge abutment in Walnut Springs Park. 

“This is a great project. It was just a repair of an abutment failure that happened sometime in the past few years. So, it was a minor project, but it was a big benefit,” said Reynolds.

Reynolds says the hike and bike trail is being expanded all the way down to Max Starcke Park. This trail covers a large area already, with roughly 2.5 miles that stretches from FM 78 down to just below the Seguin Public Library.

“And it’s a 14 foot roughly wide trail that comes from Hwy. 78 all the way through town down to Convent Street, and eventually, very soon, we’ll provide a north-south collector all the way to Starcke Park. It’s a big benefit to the city. It goes past many areas in the in the city, including Park West, the Juan Seguin (campus) site, along with downtown and the library. It also runs in close vicinity to the police station. So, there’s a lot of great features along the site,” said Reynolds. 

The expansion work on the trail continues. Reynolds says it’s a roughly $5 million expansion project, that’s partially funded by the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO).

Reynolds says once the expansion work is complete, the trail will traverse across a large portion of the city. She says it will also make it easier for pedestrians to get to Starcke Park. The extension of the trail should be completed by early this summer.

“There were some historic areas of the trail, such as the heart-shaped well that we relocated and repaired as part of the project. It’s being showcased along an elevated segment of the trail as part of our new expansion project. It’s elevated in various sections. It includes numerous elevated components, including a long segment that is just suspended over the creek areas of elevated sidewalks and crossings. The area was part of an Army Corps reforestation, so we had to be cautious of the tree preservation during the project. It goes under the Ruby P. Vaughan Bridge. It also includes the first underpass under (Street). This section is about half a mile long. I believe that brings the full trail up to about three miles – from (FM) 78 all the way through town. So, that’s a big, big benefit to the city,” said Reynolds.

There’s also planning underway for improvements to the spillway in Walnut Springs Park.

Reynolds says they have been working to secure the proper permits for that work, and they hope to begin that work soon.

In addition to the spillway work, the city is also looking at making repairs along the streambank. Reynolds says there are several questions that need to be answered before any of that work can begin.

“We need to establish what the project scope is going to be, how far downstream we need to go, whether we fully engineer the channel or we maintain a more natural stream bank. So that is kind of where we sit. We have to establish a budget for that. Our intention from the engineering department is to engage a consultant to do a preliminary engineering study which would help us define what each of those processes would look like, how much they would cost, how far we can go, and what permitting would be required as we cross certain thresholds,” said Reynolds.

Councilman Paul Gaytan, lives near the trail. He says he’s seen the erosion problems along the creek, and he’s worried that it has become a safety hazard. He says the city needs to start planning now. 

“The blocks that have fallen in, that’s right behind the library. There are children that play in that creek and there are children that play on those blocks. So, if we have a continuing erosion problem, that means that limestone blocks will continue to fall into the creek, and that is dangerous,” said Gaytan.

Several decisions will need to be made about the streambank improvements, including whether or not it should be a natural stream bank or engineered channel restoration project.

The scope and the costs of the project will be determined later once those studies and plans are completed. 

View article on SeguinToday.com