The Trinity River Vision's Gateway Park Vision

You are looking at a big billboard in Gateway Park, near Fort Woof. The billboard shows the Trinity River Vision's Vision for Gateway Park. I'd  not previously spent much time looking at this billboard, except to note that it was quite large and an awful lot of effort seemed to have gone in to it.

That and I wondered how much the billboard cost, along with the forest of other signs nearby extolling the Virtues of the Vision.

This time I studied this billboard more intently, making note of what is shown on the billboard that currently exists, like Fort Woof and the baseball and soccer fields, and what The Vision sees for the future of Gateway Park.

Well, let's look a section of the billboard sign, cropped from the upper right. to get an idea of how goofy the Gateway Park Vision seems to be.

Gateway Park is currently west and north of the Trinity River. Randol Mill Road is the northern boundary of Gateway Park, Beach Street the western boundary. Looking at the Billboard Map one sees that the Gateway Park Vision extends Gateway Park east of the Trinity River, all the way to Oakland Boulevard.

In the area between the Trinity River and Oakland Boulevard the Gateway Park Vision sees a Skate Park, more Baseball/Softball/Soccer Fields, a Mountain Bike Course, a Disc Golf Course and Concessions and Restrooms.

Now, that might all make sense, except for one thing. this area is currently a huge, old landfill that regularly flames off methane gas created by the decomposing trash. Is the Trinity River Vision proposing removing this landfill?

Back on the other side of the Trinity River, back in the existing Gateway Park, The Vision sees an Amphitheater and River Education Center where the remains of an old sewage treatment plant currently sit.

North of Fort Woof The Vision sees expanding the dog park and an Equestrian Center with Equestrian Trails.

The Vision sees a potential connection under the I-30 freeway to the Tandy Hills. The Vision must not have realized, at the time they had The Vision, that this would connect Gateway Park to the 15th Most Dangerous Neighborhood in America.

The Vision extends out of the existing Gateway Park, going to the west side of Beach Street where The Vision sees some ecosystem restoration, along with something called Rock Weir. I am guessing the Rock Weir has something to do with creating the Active Water feature that The Vision sees.

On the west side of Beach Street The Vision sees some more soccer fields, along with something called Active Recreation Space Parking, where you park, I guess, and have access to covered Basketball Courts, with Picnic/Playground Areas, along with a Splash Park and a couple Boat Launches, where you have access to something called Active Water.

It appears, judging from what I see on The Vision's Billboard, the Gateway Park area west of Beach Street will have a water feature making an island of where all the Active Features are. It appears that the Water Feature that makes the island is, in part, the creek that currently runs under the pedestrian bridge that leaves Gateway Park to connect to the Trinity Trail.

That particular creek was recently flooded with water and litter, by an overflowing Trinity River.

Which leads me to wonder, what happens when the Trinity River floods, with all this new stuff?

Currently a large section of Gateway Park is closed, due to damage from the last flood. I have not gone past the blocking barriers, but I assume a section of the paved trail was washed out by the flood. Also, currently in Gateway Park there are 2 elaborate boardwalk accesses to the Trinity River which are boarded up with "Area Closed to the Public" signs.

Well, actually, the signs say, "Area Close to the Public."


So, I am wondering if the new new flood diversion channel that is being built upstream, as part of the Trinity River Vision's ever changing vision, is going to put an end to flooding in Gateway Park of the sort we saw a few weeks ago?

And who is responsible for the boarded up Trinity River Boardwalks in Gateway Park. Were they the result of another Vision gone awry? Why aren't they either fixed or removed?