‘Severe blow’ in store for White Rock Trail users

Significant growing pains are pending for users of White Rock Lake trails.

Beginning July 13, the Lawther and Northwest Highway intersection will close to all north- and southbound traffic, including pedestrian and bike, for the next two years, Jared White at the Dallas Park Department tells us.

That means that those of us who use the trail to get from Lake Highlands to White Rock Lake are out of luck, for two years. I guess we can travel over Flag Pole Hill and cross at Northwest and Buckner … I don’t know what to think, to be honest. Right now I am just lamenting the loss of my beloved Saturday morning running route.

Anyway, emotions aside, here are a few of the facts: TX DOT will close the construction zone, citing safety precautions, while they work on raising the Northwest Highway bridge above the flood plane. Again, in case you missed it, the estimated time will be two more years. The folks at the Park Department are “working on some ideas” for safely rerouting bikes, runners, etc, Smith says, but have yet to come to a solution they are willing to talk about. The trail from East Dallas/White Rock Lake will end at Northwest Highway. Cyclists coming from south of Northwest Highway will still be able to access Dallas Bike Works; those coming from the north of Northwest will have to find a different route.

We will still be able to drive east and west along Northwest Highway, but it won’t be fun. Two lanes of traffic will be accommodated — we’ll need to refer more specific questions about the staging to TX DOT, Smith says.

He adds that the department is bracing for a flood of questions from (probably upset) residents, most of which Parks will refer to TX DOT. The Back Talk reader, James Wilson, who first asked us about this seemed as distressed about it as I am. He writes:

The closure of the hike-and-bike trail is a severe blow to runners and cyclists from all over North and Northeast Dallas. There isn’t another place for cyclists and runners to cross Northwest Highway without going through the neighborhood to the intersection of Northwest Highway and Buckner/Audelia. And that intersection is way more dangerous than W. Lawther and Northwest. Boy Scouts Troop 890 in Lake Highlands uses the trail every summer for Scouts to complete their Cycling, Athletics, Sports, and Personal Fitness merit badges, and for their annual Triathlon on Labor Day weekend. My son participated a few years ago, and I was OK with him riding down the trail and crossing at Lawther – there’s no way I’d let him ride and cross at Buckner. Not to mention the impact it’s going to have on Dallas Bike Works, who just relocated to the old PT’s strip club building between CC Young and Centennial. This will absolutely KILL their ride-up business.

The construction will no doubt end in far better accommodations for all of us, but that end now looks so far away. Ugh.

Posted by: Christina Hughes Babb on June 30th, 2010 in All Blog Posts, Traffic, White Rock Lake
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Stuart

If they fix the sidewalk along NWH, you could cross at the DART entrance.
Marci

If you think you cyclists/runners have it bad, consider us residents of the White Rock West condo complex — the only way for us to head westbound on NW Hwy is any number of u-turn variations at Lawther. Current construction has made that complicated enough; unless some other plan is revealed, we will now likely have to go all the way up to Buckner to u-turn. For 2 years.
CitizenKane

“Severe Blow”…In reality, a severe blow would be if White Rock Lake park was CLOSED for two years, not some re-routing due to road construction which will utltimately improve access to the park…..the problem with spokespeople these days is their tendency to over exaggerate the situation as a means to garner headlines and promote their very narrow agenda.
Patrick Smith

Flood PLANE? Really? Un anyway, I’m with CitizenKane: The inconvenience is unfortunate, but how exactly did you suppose that TxDOT was going to finish the NW Highway project? Your sacrifice will be well worth it. Relax, it’ll all be okay.
James Wilson

Mr. Smith, I think you underestimate the kind of “sacrifice” that this may bring. Try it for yourself. Go to the intersection of Doran circle & Northwest Highway, and cross on a bike from the north to the south, and try to get to East Lawther from there. You have to use a crosswalk with broken signal buttons to get across NWH, and then get across the “speedway” lane that takes traffic from eastbound NWH to southbound Buckner (that traffic does not have to stop at the light, ever), then ride along Buckner for a couple hundred yards. Now try it again, only with a couple of kids on sidewalk bikes riding along with you. at 5:30 pm on a weekday, please. And also, please report back on your success, if your hospital room has wi-fi.
David G

I for one am glad the cyclist will be hampered in their attempts to use this trail. While walking the trail I was hit but one of these cyclist riding in a pack of 45 riders, 5 wide, traveling at 20 mph. This is rediculous to even allow such a thing to happen. They have no regard for anyone but their need to travel like they are in a race Let them ride on the open roads and play chicken with the cars who will treat them the way they treat walkers on the WRT path. I hope the construction runs into money issues and takes 5 years to complete and not 2.
http://saj.thecommune.net/ Stuart

While I don’t condone that behavior, I do think it is “funny” that cyclists who ride in the road are told “why don’t you ride on the trail” and those who ride on the trail are told, “why don’t you ride in the road”!
Reg

It’s time that cyclists paid a registration fee like motorist do. That way they would have some justification for the demands they make for all that hard to find public money.