All the work gussying up Buffalo Bayou is what's getting all the press, but there's a lot happening along Brays Bayou, too. It began last summer, when a little link of the trail was framed and poured, connecting Mason Park from 75th Street to Forest Hill Boulevard. Since then, another 1.5 miles have been all but completed. Now, you can jog, walk, push a stroller, and ride --- without having to negotiate intersections, fight F-150s, or leave the banks of the bayou --- from Lawndale Avenue to Old Spanish Trail. Eventually, says Richard McNamara, Bayou Greenways Program Manager, it'll run "between Broadway . . . all the way to Eldridge in Alief for approximately 26 miles of continuous trails."
Of course, there are not as many things to stop and take pictures of on Brays Bayou --- no dandelion fountains, no Jaume Plensas, no Lost Lakes, no pedestrian bridges --- but this trail will be used differently. It provides easy connectivity for those who shop and live on opposite sides of I-45 between Griggs and South Wayside. And it's a convenient corridor for students and other bike commuters trying to get from the East End to the Med Center, Rice, UH, or TSU.
Here's a little tour of this newest section of the trail, starting at Lawndale and heading west.
You can get on and off the trail using this ramp at Spurlock Park in Idylwood:
The trail curves around North MacGregor Way toward I-45. There, it curls around a spot known as the Sylvan Dell, where the Houston Parks Board wanted to put a trailhead with a lighted parking lot. (Members of the Idylwood Civic Club petitioned the Parks Board not to.) The trail runs from here behind the Brookdale Village Apartments. A new fence was put up, but a gate allows residents --- and guests of the nearby Red Carpet Inn --- to access the trail:
The trail then dips underneath I-45 . . .
. . . and heads out the other side toward the Telephone Road bridge:
The areas farther along underneath the South Wayside bridge have become another popular fishing spot:
The construction progress --- and the workday, apparently --- ends abruptly at Old Spanish Trail:
This summer, crews dismantled the Wheeler Street Bridge and built a new one at Lidstone Street, near Fonde Park and the Orange Show. Right now, Wheeler is barricaded. A sidewalk with new ramps has been built, but they're not connected to anything yet:
Frames have been set up for the trail on both sides of the bank.
The trail still appears rather rough. Sod was laid on either side of the trail earlier this month, but the banks are scraped in places and Gatorade bottles, hunks of Rebar, and other detritus of construction litter the way. Says McNamara: "Landscaping and additional site amenities and graphics and wayfinding will be designed on all new and existing greenway segments." The next segment to be completed is a federally funded trail (through TIGER grants) on the north bank between Lidstone and UH, where the existing trail awaits.
Click to see a large .PDF of a provisional concept for the rest of the construction in the East End. You can learn more about what the Harris County Flood Control District is contributing at the Project Brays website.
