AUSTIN, Texas – An ambitious project is looking to connect San Antonio to Austin. Not along roads, but along a single hike and bike trail.
The backstory:
The Great Springs Project is a nonprofit whose goal is to create a trail corridor between the Alamo and the State Capital.
Since 2018, the group has been working to establish the Bicentennial Trail, which will span over a hundred miles and connect some of Central Texas’s most renowned landmarks.
“We want it to be a trail for everyone. We want it to be where people live,” says Emma Lindrose-Siegel, the chief development officer for the Great Springs Project.
By combining new and existing trails, the project will connect spots such as the Barton, Comal, San Marcos, and San Antonio Springs under one trailhead. The trail will run from San Antonio to Selma, Universal City, Garden Ridge, Schertz, Cibolo, New Braunfels, San Marcos, Kyle, Buda, and then Austin.
With new legislation, the project also has an end date now as well. House Bill 4230 states that the trail must be completed by the Texas Bicentennial in 2036.
Great Springs Project organizers will be working with the General Land Office, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Parks and Wildlife and local governments to create the desired path between San Antonio and Austin.
Great Springs Project has estimated that through economic, health, transportation, and land & water boosts, communities from San Antonio to Austin will see $55,920,000 in annual benefits.
The Bicentennial Trail will also help to protect over 50,000 acres of land in the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer, used as a major source of drinking water for Central Texas.
With the region growing quickly, Lindrose-Seigel feels it might be now or never to preserve Central Texas’s landscapes as well as one of its most valuable resources.
“If we don’t do the Land Conservation Park building, Greenway connectivity work now, the opportunity, the window of opportunity will close,” Lindrose-Seigel said.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin’s Marco Bitonel