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Balcones Park and Northern Walnut Creek Trail


WatersPark
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11 hours ago, Bamwa said:

 It muds at Gracywoods Park too but I think it's just a thing that will get better after a few years monitoring the initial job.

Which Gracywoods Park are you referring to? 

The Southern Walnut Multi-Use Path has been open for several years and still has trouble spots after rain washes mud, sand and gravel onto the trail. 

It's not a big revelation that water flows downhill.  A fundamental aspect of paved path design should be that water is diverted away from the trail surface, instead of incorporating design flaws that annoy and endanger trail users. 

Edited by June Bug
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1 hour ago, June Bug said:

Which Gracywoods Park are you referring to? 

The Southern Walnut Multi-Use Path has been open for several years and still has trouble spots after rain washes mud, sand and gravel onto the trail. 

It's not a big revelation that water flows downhill.  A fundamental aspect of paved path design should be that water is diverted away from the trail surface, instead of incorporating design flaws that annoy and endanger trail users. 

Is there more than one? I was talking about the Gracywoods Park trailhead. Between the improved playground and Walnut Creek. Always see some mud there. It's a trap!

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1 hour ago, Bamwa said:

Is there more than one? I was talking about the Gracywoods Park trailhead. Between the improved playground and Walnut Creek. Always see some mud there. It's a trap!

I see that spot everytime I ride to Walnut.  I've been meaning to bring a shovel along and clean it up.  Dang, I guess I admitted to sanitizing!

Edited by WatersPark
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18 hours ago, Bamwa said:

I was talking about the Gracywoods Park trailhead. Between the improved playground and Walnut Creek.

On the east side of Metric? There's a sidewalk that comes down to the multi-use path.  If you go left (upstream) you cross under Metric on the path.  There is always some something that washes across during rains. IIRC, there's a bench there as well and some bare ground that contributes to the problem. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Rode the paved path yesterday afternoon to go to the library on Amherst.  There was regrading going on to create a drainage on the side of the path; everything was blocked off on the new section from the fork with the path by the creek.  A track-hoe was at work and the crew wouldn't let me go around it, so I had to ride up the old creekside path and go up the steep slope by Duval. 

Will be interesting to see how regrading the dirt fared with the rain. 

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14 hours ago, ebflo said:

Try taking a right about 20yds along creekside from where it splits off from the new concrete trail, then an immediate left. It's a good steep sorta techy climb if you want something more challenging than the paved routes.

Thanks for the tip.  I'll see if I can find it, but I'm always on my commuter bike with narrow-ish tires at 60 psi and usually loaded up with magazines to donate to the library, so not too compatible with techy.  May be inspired to ride my mtn bike some time, though.  I've never ridden any of the Balcones Dist. Park trails. 

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They replaced the flex base shoulder with topsoil and erosion control fabric in a couple areas and replaced a section of concrete that cracked prematurely.  It fared better than expected with the big rain last Thursday. Much better than the flex base which had completely washed out.  Now they are replacing the defective curb to that allowed street drainage  to flow down the trail.  Volunteers will be armoring and restoring the areas by the bridge tomorrow to try to reduce the mud accumulation on the bridge. Meetup is at Balcones Park 9 am if you want to lend a hand!

https://austinparks.givepulse.com/event/135223-Balcones-Park-Cleanup-and-Trail-Work

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I rode the path Sunday, just to check out the post-big-rain aftermath.  The erosion control fabric did it's job.  There is even grass sprouting here and there.   Based on the time I saw the work and the onset of the rain, the erosion control fabric was laid down just before the start of the rain. Perfect timing to get the grass seed a very nice soaking. 

In retrospect, the low water crossing always has a ton of mud that settles out.  I assumed it was from high water flowing over; now I'm wondering if it at least some of it was washing down from the sides of the paved path.  We'll see with future high water events. 

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The mud in the bridge area is mostly from the trail side area that was never properly restored. The pm told me it was too shady to get anything to grow.  What about rock you might ask?  Well they armored 2 areas but missed the area that drains the apartment parking lot and the area upstream of the bridge were left unarmored.

Then the flex base they out along the latest phase washed down and added to it.  

Big storms like the one we had the 24th that get up over the bridge actually help flush the mud off the bridge, but it left a bunch of gravel from the apartment landscaping in the trail.  We shoveled and swept the gravel and the remaining mud off bridge and rocked and seeded some more areas along the trail upstream of the bridge.  Hopefully it will fare better going forward.  Also got rid of most of the ragweed that had taken over from the bridge to mopac. 

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