News

While encouraging people to take transit, ride their bikes or walk to Buffalo Bayou Park, Buffalo Bayou Partnership worked very hard to accommodate more parking spaces while not jeopardizing the park’s green spaces. Our plan for Buffalo Bayou Park includes increased parking at the following major destinations:

The Water Works area: 50 new spaces

Eleanor Tinsley Park: 20 redesigned spaces

Dog Park: 17 new parallel parking spaces

Lost Lake: 81 new parking spaces

Additionally, over 400 parking spaces are located at Lot H, off Memorial and Houston Avenue, which the City intends to convert to public parking on weekends. Buffalo Bayou Partnership is seeking other opportunities for shared parking with adjacent properties.

Of course, the two new pedestrian bridges will greatly improve access to the park, and due to the strong development taking place in neighborhoods north and south of the bayou, we anticipate many park visitors will walk and ride their bikes along our improved trails and footpaths.

The Rosemont Bridge with its related access trails to adjacent neighborhoods on the north side of Memorial is a major enhancement to the park’s accessibility, but access must also be improved to the neighborhoods south of Allen Parkway. In chapter 3, page 41 of the Buffalo Bayou Park – Shepherd to Sabine master plan, Buffalo Bayou Partnership recommends access improvements like signalized intersections and crosswalks (at Taft and at Dunlavy) and an extension of the Rosemont Bridge across Allen Parkway, though these improvements are outside the scope of our project. Currently, recommendations are being considered by the City of Houston.

The intersection of Taft Street at Allen Parkwary.

Clockwise from top left: Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)’s trail widening work at Taft and Allen Parkway; Harris County Flood Control District channel realignment work at Jane Gregory Garden; TxDOT and City of Houston’s Shepherd Drive Bridge; Buffalo Bayou Partnership work at Police Memorial for new pedestrian bridge.

• Phase II of construction will begin in April. This work includes the park’s overall site work, including landscaping, irrigation, trails, water features and more. Millis Development & Construction, Inc. has been awarded the Phase II contract.
• Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) is continuing its channel realignment work upstream to Shepherd. Please be mindful of their work as you make your way downstream.
• HCFCD continues structural work to restore the bayou’s banks near the Jane Gregory Garden. Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is also working in this area, adding a widened trail at street level.
• Work on the Police Memorial Bridge has begun. The north bank piers have already been installed and the south bank pier work is scheduled to begin soon.
• Millis will soon install two dramatic support columns for the much-anticipated Jackson Hill Bridge.
• The new pedestrian bridge at Shepherd Drive is open, but there is still work to be done at both its north and south approaches. Please be mindful that the contractor continues to work in this area.

• Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) continues to conduct channel realignment work near the Police Memorial. Canoeists and kayakers are asked to remove all watercraft at Montrose. After the waterway reopens around mid-March 2013, HCFCD will continue its work upstream to Shepherd.
• In the coming weeks, HCFCD will also begin major structural work near the Jane Gregory Garden (just west of the Henry Moore bronze sculpture) and park users will see some large trees being removed from the bayou banks. Because of the severe erosion, HCFCD must get large equipment down to the bank to drill very large concrete drill shafts to pin the bank in place. This is necessary work important to the overall structure of the bayou. HCFCD is attempting to save as many trees as possible.
• TxDOT and the City of Houston are nearing completion of the much-anticipated pedestrian bridge at Shepherd Drive and trail users can expect the bridge to be open soon

A special thanks to all bayou users and visitors – construction is at times inconvenient, but we are working to improve and make this stretch of Buffalo Bayou more accessible and enjoyable.