A new hike and bike trail crossing over the South San Gabriel River at Blue Hole Park will soon be under construction. Last week, the city council approved a contract with Joe Bland Construction of Austin to construct the new river crossing on the trail.
The trail crossing will connect with the hike and bike trail at Rock Street on the south side of the river and with parkland along San Gabriel Village Boulevard on the north side of the river. Randy Morrow, community services division director, says the trail crossing will create a secondary retention pool at Blue Hole Park downstream from the existing dam. Morrow says the crossing has been engineered to withstand the tremendous floodwaters that occasionally inundate the south fork of the San Gabriel River.
Water will flow through sluices on the crossing surface and then cascade down a limestone stair-stepped embankment on the downstream side of the crossing. The design is similar to water features on San Antonio’s River Walk, says Morrow.
Construction of the trail crossing is expected to begin this summer and is projected to be complete in the spring of 2010. The cost of the pedestrian crossing is $218,000.
The trail crossing is part of a larger project that includes a new wastewater line in the vicinity, as well as the addition of a vehicle turnaround at the entrance to Blue Hole Park at Rock Street. Three handicap parking spaces will be included in the turnaround area. The cost of the entire project is $1.1 million. Tom Benz, systems engineering director, says that including the pedestrian crossing as a part of the larger project created a cost-savings of $200,000, based on an earlier bid to do the trail crossing as a separate project.
For more information about the pedestrian crossing and trail system, contact Randy Morrow, community services division director, at (512) 930-3540 or rmorrow@georgetowntx.org. For more information about the wastewater line or road improvements for the project, contact Tom Benz, systems engineering director, at (512) 930-2572 or tbenz@georgetowntx.org.
