The city is making headway on a trail in Northwest Austin that has been under construction for the past two years, but the project is far from finished.

The North Walnut Creek Trail is a new trail within the Walnut Creek Greenbelt that will run about 5 miles starting at Balcones District Park and ending at I-35 and Walnut Creek.

Austin City Council approved a construction contract Feb. 14, 2013, with Muniz Concrete & Contracting Inc. for $5.9 million for the trail. About half of the money came from a state grant; city funds paid for the other half.

The Austin Public Works Department is overseeing the project. Construction of Phase 1 is scheduled for completion in February, Phase 1 Project Manager Richard Duane said.

Phase 1 starts at MoPac and Waters Park Road, where it connects to a shared-use path in the MoPac Improvement Project and ends about 3 miles later in Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park.

“Basically, we’re done on either end [of the trail], and we’re working towards the middle,” Duane said.

The middle portion of Phase 1 runs through Gracywoods Park, and portions of the park have been closed since about May, Duane said. According to the city website, Gracywoods Park was scheduled to reopen completely in June, but rain and wet conditions delayed construction.

Duane said a sidewalk is being installed through Gracywoods Park and under Metric Boulevard.

A larger portion of Gracywoods Park will likely reopen in September or October, but work will continue under Metric for the next several months, Duane said.

“It’s been a long project,” he said. “It’s tough country, so it was tough to build it in.”

Changes delay construction

Part of Phase 1 west of MoPac was established as a subproject. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulate the area, and the use of federal funds would have required additional permitting and oversight, according to the city.

Phase 1A consists of a new trail from Amherst Drive to the northern end point of Phase 1 at MoPac, where it will connect to the MoPac Trail.

Jon Sullivan, vice president of the Walnut Crossing Neighborhood Association, said Phase 1A is a sticking point for many residents in the Walnut Crossing and Milwood neighborhoods who were unhappy with its original design.

In an effort to fix the design, the city used public input from a meeting in June to revamp a segment of the trail that runs parallel to Scribe Drive. At an Aug. 20 public meeting, Phase 1A Project Manager Clay Harris presented a new design, which incorporates a switchback where the original design called for a long, steep hill.

The switchback changes the direction of the trail and adds two level landings to reduce its slope. Harris said the switchback would reduce speed for bicyclists going downhill and offer relief to bikers and pedestrians going uphill.

The new design also incorporated more protection for an endangered species of salamander and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Harris said. Dividing walls between the homes on Scribe and the trail were made shorter in the new design at the request of residents.

“This, we feel, is a good compromise to address everybody’s concerns,” Harris said of the new design.

Residents who attended the meeting favored the new design although it would further delay the project and, Harris added, cost about $300,000 more than the original design.

One resident suggested the city explore a second staging area so two construction companies could work on separate segments of the trail at once and possibly finish Phase 1A sooner than Harris’ anticipated date of summer 2018.

Harris countered that one staging area would allow the public to access certain portions of the trail while other portions were under construction. Harris said he would take up the issue again at the next public meeting in January, when design of Phase 1A is near completion.

Sullivan said since Harris took over management of Phase 1A, the city has been more communicative and made public input a high priority.

“We are really open to their continued communication with us,” Sullivan said. “We have a lot of hope.”

Phase 2, which will pick up at Walnut Creek park and end at I-35 and Walnut Creek, is still in the design stage, and funding for construction is not yet available, according to the city.