Detours on Austin hike-and-bike trail planned amid Waller Creek project work

Cyclists and pedestrians looping Lady Bird Lake will encounter some detours over the next few months as the City of Austin and Waterloo Greenway Conservancy are building new bridges over Waller Creek.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Cyclists and pedestrians looping Lady Bird Lake will encounter some detours over the next few months as the City of Austin and Waterloo Greenway Conservancy are building new bridges over Waller Creek.

The two new pedestrian lattice bridges will cross over the Lagoon Overlook and Leaf Deck for The Confluence, marking the second phase of the Waterloo Greenway, per a city release Tuesday.

The first detour begins July 22 and will run through the end of August, depending on weather. During the detour, crews will construct the new lattice bridge and add a short-term creek crossing to assist in later detours. City officials noted future detours will differ on the route crossing the creek.

For that first detour, users will be guided to a temporary, 12-foot-wide granite trail east of the existing bridge crossing Waller Creek. That temporary trail will be fenced on both sides and "users will continue to cross Waller Creek on the existing bridge," per the release.

Construction hours run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the week, with the possibility of weekend work. There's also the potential that trail users will need to stop at certain points to permit construction traffic to cross the trail, with flaggers assisting in alerting pedestrians and cyclists.

The Confluence is a 13-acre project running along the Waller Creek from Fourth Street to Lady Bird Lake, city officials said. The goal is to create a "continuous, off-street, bike and pedestrian trail" between the hike-and-bike trail and Fourth Street, as well as enhancing water quality, bolstering nature access to stabilizing the Waller Creek's bank.

Construction launched last May and is expected to wrap by spring 2026, the release added.

As part of the project, three new lattice bridges will offer east-west connections across Waller Creek. The project is being created in collaboration between the City of Austin, Waterloo Greenway Conservancy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with a total estimated construction cost of $75 million.

More details about the project are available online, as well as additional information on the planned detours.