The wishbone-shaped span — the first of its kind in Austin — will have a foot-wide plaza at its center with benches, bike racks, ornamental trees and shade structures.
City of Austin. The foot-wide plaza at the center of the bridge will feature benches, bike racks, ornamental trees and shade structures. As part of the project, a 6-foot-wide pedestrian tunnel under Pleasant Valley Road will be replaced with a more spacious foot-wide tunnel with a foot-wide sidewalk, better lighting and a higher, arched ceiling.
Plans call for replacing the 6-foot-wide pedestrian tunnel under Pleasant Valley road left with an arched, foot-wide tunnel with better lighting.
But escalating costs and an expanded scope that includes more sidewalk improvements pushed the budget higher. The wishbone bridge will be installed in this part of Lady Bird Lake, connecting Longhorn Shores, Canterbury Park and an unnamed peninsula. It is really going to be a special place. The city applied for the grant last year. Casar pushed it through a process called Community Project Funding — a program intended to be a more transparent version of earmarking, in which Congress members direct money to pet projects in their home districts.
To cross the lake, pedestrians and cyclists had to detour to the Pleasant Valley Road Bridge, which until a few years ago was a harrowing passageway with a narrow sidewalk, chain-link fence and low guardrails.
