DALLAS — Between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, TxDOT installed a brand-new pedestrian bridge over US-75 between the intersections of Forest Lane and Royal Lane.
Although there's still some work to be finished on the project -- including ramp approaches that would actually allow entrance onto the elevated platform -- cyclists from all across DFW stopped by to marvel at it on Sunday night.
"It's beautiful!" cyclist Randy Heffner said.
The 201-foot, 800,000-pound arch will help connect Dallas’ disconnected bike and pedestrian trails.
"I’ve been waiting for a long time for this," Heffner continued. "I always have to tell my friends in other cities Dallas has a wonderful collection of almost interconnected bike trails."
On the west side of US-75, there’s the Northaven Trail. And on the east, Cottonwood Creek and White Rock Creek trails. Also nearby? The Preston Ridge Trail, and the Central Trail in Richardson.
Previously, though, there's been no good way to get from the trains on the west side of the highway to the ones on the east.
"It’s just unsafe," said Jeff Kitner, president of Friends of the Northaven Trail. "You can’t get anywhere on the other side of the highway very easily without crossing central at an unsafe crossing or going underneath the highway."
Kitner said he didn't want to see any more North Texans in danger. So, he said, he and his nonprofit worked with TxDOT, the city and the county on the $9.3 million dollar project.
"This bridge will really open up the whole city," he said.
TxDOT shut down part of US-75 on Saturday night through Sunday afternoon to install the bridge in what they hoped would be as minimally disruptive an effort to traffic as possible. To that end, TxDOT said, the bridge -- nicknamed the "Low Five" by its fans because it connects five trails and it sits nearby, prominent High Five Interchange -- was preassembled in advance just east of the highway until it was ready to be hoisted up and installed. It will be fully operation, TxDOT said, sometime this fall.
Once it is, it will exist within a system that will one way connect trails all the way from Fort Worth to White Rock Lake. TxDOT has also built a bridge over White Rock Creek as part of this larger project aimed at connecting the region's trails.
"The easier it is to get around, the more people you're going to have taking advantage of the resources," cyclist Charles Gatlin told WFAA.