A portion of Brushy Creek Regional Trail—closed for renovations to Brushy Creek Lake Park and the adjacent dam—will likely remain closed until April 2018.

Chris Tschirhart, senior project manager for the Upper Brushy Creek Water Control and Improvement District, said the dam modernization project will be complete in April 2018 after construction began in June 2016. The renovations give additional flood protections to developments downstream from the dam, Tschirhart said.

“When these dams were constructed […] it was all agricultural land around them so they were low hazard dams,” he said. “Since that time, the area has completely developed. There’s development all around these dams, and particularly downstream.”

Brushy Creek Lake Park’s trail, part of the Brushy Creek Regional Trail, will reopen once the dam renovations are completed, Williamson County spokesperson Connie Watson said. Originally, the project was expected to be complete in fall 2017.

“During the same time period the trail’s closed, it is also the county’s plan to repair and reestablish the trail that’s below [the dam] that leads into Champion Park,” Williamson County Parks & Recreation Director Randy Bell said.