City of Garland: MGR Bikeway

Mr. Jim Waldbauer was the project manager for the MGR Bikeway project which includes two trail segments along Duck Creek in the City of Garland. This project has an estimated construction cost of $2.9 million. These two trail segments completed critical trail links along Duck Creek, as part of the Mesquite-Garland-Richardson (MGR) regional trail system. The project included boundary and topographic surveying, preparation of a schematic alignment, engineering design for construction plans, specifications, easement documents, construction administration and environmental assessment.

This project consists of two unique segments: one segment adjacent to Duck Creek at Centerville Road and the other segment adjacent to Duck Creek and traversing under I.H. 30 to connect to a future City of Mesquite trail. These two 12’ wide trail segments totaled approximately 4,650 linear feet. Both segments will include a pedestrian bridge structure over Duck Creek and will provide critical missing pedestrian trail links in these two areas. The project is being completed with funding from the City of Garland, Dallas County and Texas Department of Transportation through RTR funds. As such, the project required meeting applicable NCTCOG environmental clearance. The construction cost for the project was approximately $2.9 million dollars.

This project was selected because the design included an environmental assessment, construction administration and included several unique design features. The project included TxDOT RTR and Dallas County funding and as such, an environmental assessment was required. Some of the unique factors involved in the project included the requirement for an environmental assessment, multiple pedestrian bridges, and a trail underpass of Centerville Road. SPI was aware of the process to obtain the required data for the Environmental Assessment and complete the agency required checklists. SPI worked with our environmental subconsultant, IES Environmental, to complete this work. The pedestrian bridges over Duck Creek at Centerville Road included a three-span structure which required hydraulic modeling to ensure no changes in the floodplain of Duck Creek. In addition, a 100’ single span pedestrian bridge was constructed over Duck Creek south of IH 30 which also required hydraulic modeling. SPI worked with our hydrology engineer subconsultant, Nathan D. Meier, in order to ensure the successful placement of these bridges. The trail also included a route which went under Centerville Road which required removal of existing bridge rip rap slope areas and construction of a “bench” to accommodate the trail. This underpass required a significant retaining wall system.