CHALK HILL TRAIL

The $6-million trail, funded mostly by Dallas County, could open in 2018.

Construction begins next year on the 3.7-mile path originally cut by the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad. It will begin at the DART station at Wright and Illinois and snake around to West Davis and Chalk Hill Road. In fewer than four miles, it travels through varied scenery, including residential neighborhoods and forested areas, reaching the cliffs above West Davis.

The most expensive piece is a bridge needed to replace an old wooden trestle just north of Jefferson.

When it opens, there won’t be lighting or any other amenities along the trail. Fundraising from private “friends of” groups have paid for those extras on the Katy Trail and at White Rock Lake, for example.

There is a “very preliminary” plan to connect the Chalk Hill Trail with the Coombs Creek Trail, says City Councilman Scott Griggs. The latter would be extended through the Stevens Park Golf Course and then the old Colorado Place apartments where Lincoln Property Co. is planning a development. From there, it would cut a path into Stevens Park Village and to Pinnacle Park to connect at Chalk Hill Road.

Coombs Creek Trail

The Coombs Creek Trail begins as a soft path from the flood protection levee under Beckley. The paved portion begins near Junior Drive.

When it opened in 2009, the Coombs Creek Trail followed a 1.5-mile path along Kessler Parkway to Stevens Park Golf Course.

The trail recently was extended to Colorado, where it makes a left on Plymouth and goes all the way to Hampton.

There is a very preliminary plan to connect it eventually to the Chalk Hill Trail in West Dallas.

On the Kessler Park end, the trail will connect at Sylvan Avenue to the new Interstate 30 bridge, which is expected to open next year. From there it will meet the Trinity Skyline Trail, a major connector in The Loop.

Skyline To Great Trinity Forest

The Loop includes a plan to build the 8.7-mile Trinity Forest Spine Trail, between South Dallas and White Rock Lake, which has been planned since about 2010 but as yet is unfunded.

The Trinity Skyline Trail link, near Glendale Park, would connect the Skyline Trail through the Great Trinity Forest and South Dallas to the Trinity Spine Trail.

The Spine trail would traverse through South Dallas and East Dallas’ Parkdale neighborhood to the Santa Fe Trail, which meets White Rock Lake.

“The great thing about [The Loop] is that all that of our rights-of-way, with a few exceptions, are done,” Ellerman says. “It’s all been secured, paid for. It’s done. That is a huge advantage.”