The next phase of the Violet Crown Trail, which will someday stretch 30 miles from Zilker Park near downtown Austin to Hays County is slated to move forward this fall.
The Violet Crown Trail is made up of several pieces, said Hanna Cofer, Hill Country Conservancy director of events and communication.
“There are a lot of great trails in neighborhoods in Central and South Austin but none of them connect to each other, so we kind of wanted to create one main vein … sort of a trail to connect the trails and provide access to amenities that people wouldn’t normally be able to get to without a car,” she said, adding the trail will aim to address issues such as residents having to drive to get to the Veloway, for example.
The first segment of the Violet Crown Trail opened in August 2015. Workers could start on the next piece this fall.[/caption]
Breaking ground
Phase 1 of the trail consists of three segments: one from Zilker Park to Hwy. 290 in Sunset Valley, which opened in August 2015, another from Dick Nichols District Park to Hwy. 290 and a third from Dick Nichols to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at 4301 La Crosse Ave., Cofer said. HCC plans to begin construction before the end of 2016 on the first portion of the third segment of Phase 1 from Slaughter Lane to the Wildflower Center, she said.
The trail surface must cross over an underground pipeline at a 90-degree angle, she said, so work is underway to update the design for that requirement.
The next portion the city of Austin Public Works Department will begin work on is the part that extends from the William Hampton branch of the Austin Public Library to the intersection of Brush Country Road and Convict Hill Road, which is part of Phase 2 South, said Chad Crager, division manager. That project is expected to go out for bids during the second week of November. The design for it is complete, he said, adding the trail surface incorporates a material called StaLok, which looks like natural material but has a more solid foundation than dirt and loose stones, he said.
“The first week of April is when we expect to break ground,” he said. The project will be substantially completed by November 2017, and the section that is in the Texas Department of Transportation right of way is going to be concrete, he said.
That portion of the trail will be maintained by public works, he said.
The project area passes through a habitat of tawny crazy ants, and mitigating the invasive species’ potential spread had delayed the project.
“We worked very closely with the Balcones Canyonland Preserve to basically make sure that the contract specifies how to [deal with] the tawny crazy ants,” Crager said, adding vehicles must be washed down after they leave the site to prevent ants from being carried away from the area.
Future work
Phase 2 North is a $1.4 million north section from Home Depot Boulevard in Sunset Valley to just south of where MoPac meets Williamson Creek.
The city expects to advertise bids for that section in February and expects a notice to proceed, or start turning dirt, in June, Crager said.
The plan is to have a trailhead at Home Depot Boulevard as well as behind the Randalls store, he said.
Funding for the trail comes from bonds, Crager said.
HCC is in the last year of a three-year capital campaign that would help fund the trail, Cofer said.
“The reason that HCC—which is a land trust, not a trail-building entity—[got involved] was because we wanted to give access to the [conservation] lands,” she said, adding the nonprofit is working to protect thousands of acres of land, scenic vistas and water quality. “People aren’t going to value conservation unless they can see it.”
