Salado north-south connection: cyclists await!

The City of San Antonio's Parks and Recreation and JBSA San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston completed their negotiations regarding the routing of the greenway trail through the military installation that will serve as a connector of the Salado-north and Salado-south greenway trails. Brandon Ross, Special Projects Manager, said, "I’m hoping to begin construction on this project no later than 2023, possibly 2022, depending on the resolution/relocation of horse paddocks." Ross noted that the paddocks relocations will be underway. It will also require moving a fence that will run between the Fort Sam Houston Equestrian Center stables and the Union Pacific railroad track and tearing down 26 small stables that are situated on the other side of the fence and replacing them with something else.

The greenway is approximately 10 feet (3 m) wide and the DoD calls for a 20-foot (6-meter) easement which means that the fence must be moved 30 feet (9 m). Engineering plans have been completed in late 2017. They had hoped to begin construction during spring 2018.

Once the connection is completed, it will make the Salado Creek Greenway the longest-running trail on the Howard W. Peak Greenway Trails System, a distance of 31 miles (50 km), running between Eisenhower Park and South Side Lions Park.

The new trail will cross over Binz-Engleman Road and continue along the tracks to a trestle. From the trestle, the trail will be routed to the Salado South Greenway at its Jack White Park trailhead, located at 3781 Seguin Rd.

Recent activities at Wilshire Terrace Park

Recently, a bridge and trailhead were constructed at Wilshire Terrace Park on Grantham Drive, a residential street located across Rittiman Road from John James Park. There are no connectors from Wilshire Terrace to John James such as a path going under the Rittiman bridge. According to Ross, a separate bridge will go in south of Rittiman and connect Salado-North directly to the park when work begins on the north-south connector.

Original issue by SRR News Services—2018-05-12, 2020-03-11, 2021-05-04