East Austin’s ‘wishbone’ bridge takes shape as concrete beams almost span Lady Bird Lake

Massive concrete beams now extend over the water at the east end of Lady Bird Lake as a new three-pronged pedestrian bridge – the first of its kind in Austin – comes together next to the Longhorn Dam. Only one gap remains before the bridge’s skeleton is assembled.

Once complete in mid-2026, this long-awaited “wishbone bridge” will finally connect the city’s most popular trail at a long-overlooked corner of the lake in East Austin. This is the last point along the 10-mile Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail where people have to depart the pathway walk right next to traffic.

Even though the city began widening the bridge’s notoriously slim 4-foot-wide sidewalks in 2021, many trail users don’t want to stroll next to fast-moving vehicles on Pleasant Valley Road.

“I don’t like walking on top of the bridge, because people really whip around it,” said Mike Stumpf, who uses the trail two or three times a week. “I’m quite excited about (the wishbone bridge), because I think it’s going to increase the people on this side of the trail. This side gets a little less foot traffic than the Auditorium Shores/MoPac loop.”

Workers are now installing the support elements for a 76-foot-wide central plaza, designed to be both a gathering place and a scenic overlook.

The plaza will have shade, plants and 31 art benches, which can be named after someone for a donation of at least $15,000 to the Trail Conservancy. But those finishing touches are still more than a year away.

Immediately south of the bridge construction, crews have tunneled out a new pedestrian crossing beneath Pleasant Valley Road. The 30-foot-wide arched underpass replaces a dimly lit, 6-foot-wide tunnel that frequently flooded.

The new tunnel will have a 16-foot-wide sidewalk and better lighting. Starting in December, Houston artist Reginald Adams will install a 4-foot-tall mosaic tile mural on the tunnel walls and a painted mural across the 100-foot-long ceiling.

“The artist wanted to cover the entire surface and still work within the budget for this project,” said Lindsay Hutchens with the city’s Art in Public Places program. A city rule requires 2 percent of the budget for capital improvement projects go toward public art.

 

Austin City Council recently took a closer look at hiring local artists for publicly funded work like this $190,000 tunnel mural. A plan to spend almost $11 million on art at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport was recently paused over concerns that not enough local artists were involved.

Adams was selected by a jury of three Austin artists in 2022 and approved by the City Council.

“We haven’t heard any complaints at all,” Hutchens said. “Reginald, as an artist, he does community-oriented artwork a lot. He’s been doing work for over 30 years. He has over 180 community-based public art projects.”

Those projects include a mosaic mural he created for the African American Cultural and Heritage Facility on 11th Street.

For the tunnel art, Adams held several public workshops inviting residents to make tiles. More than 200 handprints – and one dog’s paw print – will be part of the installation.

 

The $25 million wishbone bridge and tunnel project are paid for mostly with debt Austin voters approved as part of a 2020 transportation bond. That $20 million was supplemented by a $4.1 million federal grant obtained with the help of U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin. The rest of the money came from other city sources including 2016 and 2012 bonds.

The $4.1 million federal grant won’t be affected by a recent short-term budget approved by Congress that eliminated all earmarks for 2025, city staff said.

The federal budget did cancel some funding for two other Austin trail projects. A half-mile extension of the Northern Walnut Creek Trail from Oak Brook Drive to the Girl Scouts of Central Texas property lost $1.25 million. A piece of the Red Line Trail from Gracy Farms to the Walnut Creek Trail lost a $2 million grant.

“Trails have broad support across our region and routinely rank among the top community requests for public funding,” Tom Wald with the Red Line Parkway Initiative said. “We’re hopeful that the funding can be restored.”

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.

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Posted In: Transportation, District 3