At the end of September, The Loop Plaza in Dallas will officially open. It’s a project that links the Trinity Strand Trail, the Katy Trail, and the H Line Connector in a 50-mile loop that has taken several phases of construction to arrive at this final completion.
Most recently, the Trinity Forest Spine Trail posed issues for developers back in May. That portion of the Loop required the creation of 11 new trails which then had to be connected to 39 ones that already existed.
To get over the finish line, a 12-foot bridge made of concrete was erected over Union Pacific to provide a safe route across the active railroad to nearby Parkdale Lake.
It’s hard work that will likely pay off in droves as it creates new pathways throughout Dallas to help more effectively link the Design District to Uptown and back again.
Philip Haigh is the executive director for Loop Dallas, a local nonprofit. He spoke with KERA News ahead of the grand opening about how building the plaza required the removal of a retaining wall close to the American Airlines Center on Houston Street.
He said of the project, “It’s the first of its kind because we actually took that retaining wall and blew it out. We removed it and where there was once fill dirt and a wall is now a bridge that continues the Katy Trail use, but then creates two new plazas and a ramp that goes through that space.”
Haigh added, “This is a type of project that you would really see in cities that are being more creative with their space because they’ve run out of real estate. So you’d see something like this in a San Francisco or a New York, you know, a Chicago, rather than something that we’ve done here in Dallas before.”
The Loop Dallas partnered with the City of Dallas, as well as the Friends of the Katy Trail and various private donors, to fund the project and bring the plaza to fruition.
Project designers want Loop Plaza to create more opportunities for connection
Jodi House works for TBG Partners as a principal designer and has been closely involved with the Loop Plaza project since it began. House said it was important for her and the other designers to create an accessible trail loop to better foster a sense of connection among Dallas residents.
She told KERA News, “I want it to be a place where people say, ‘meet me at the Loop Plaza and let’s walk to the Katy Trail Ice House, or let’s meet at the Loop Plaza and take our bikes down the Trinity Strand Trail.”
To add to the overall feelings of excitement and inclusion, a gateway into the Loop Plaza was constructed featuring weather steel curved sculptures. House said they were hoping to create “That like, ‘you have arrived’ type of moment. It becomes an actual spot instead of just a movement zone.”
The Loop Plaza is officially set to open at the end of this month, but a celebration marking the occasion isn’t scheduled until October 20. In the meantime, though, millions of visitors will have the chance to traverse as much of the 50-mile loop as they’d like.
This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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