For over a century, the often-charming concrete-and-steel bridges which replaced the wood-and-iron spans across Turtle Creek between Maple Avenue and Avondale Avenue have connected the bustling Oak Lawn area to central and downtown Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Plans are underway to renovate these vital structures of the Turtle Creek neighborhood, some of which have poetically long-punctuated the local landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have these beautiful, hundred-year-old bridges, and they\u2019re showing wear and tear,\u201d said J.D. Trueblood, president\/CEO of the Turtle Creek Association (TCA). \u201cThe time is right. I knew I couldn\u2019t do it on my own, so I approached the Turtle Creek Conservancy (TCC) and asked them if they would partner. I was really pleased that the two could come together, because both organizations are extremely important to the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are eight bridges included in the Bridges of Turtle Creek Initiative, including the two at Lemmon Avenue. The TCC is going to take care of the Hall and Bowen bridges, and the TCA is going to take care of funding the remaining six.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got Arlington Hall and Turtle Creek Park, right in the middle of the corridor, and we take care of everything else,\u201d Trueblood said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of overlap. We clean the creek from Avondale to Reverchon, and we do the medians, but we\u2019re trying to do a lot more.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are scheduled to start our first bridge third quarter, we are funded, and we are ready to go,\u201d he said. \u201cThe whole concept is we want you to know you\u2019re in the Turtle Creek corridor area. So, we want the bridges to match as much as possible \u2014 same colors, same lanterns. It was fun to go downtown, to do the research, and to learn more about Dallas history and the importance of these bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mural by artist Lauren Lewchuk at the Lemmon Avenue bridges, which was tagged with graffiti and damaged by the runoff from an added concrete railing, will be painted over.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a huge deal for me so early in my career,\u201d Lewchuk said of the spring 2022 mural. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing but not totally surprising. I\u2019m still really proud of it\u201d<\/p>\n
Stones placed under bridges, metal barricades, and new lighting will act as a deterrent for homeless encampments. Phase One includes the Lemmon Avenue and Hall Street bridges, the two most visible that bookend Turtle Creek Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can come off the Katy trail at Reverchon, connect easily with the Turtle Creek leisure trail, and walk all the way to Avondale,\u201d Trueblood said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost a 2-mile stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur agreement with the city is to maintain these bridges for 10 years,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they get tagged again or a tree limb falls on a lantern, we are the ones who would immediately go in and get it repaired. I think there\u2019s a lot of opportunity if we get an endowment set up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe estimate we\u2019ve pulled 10 tons of trash out of the creek,\u201d he smiles. \u201cAfter the last few years of intensive cleaning, blue herons, kingfishers, and egrets are back. Wildlife is returning, and that\u2019s pretty awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For over a century, the often-charming concrete-and-steel bridges which replaced the wood-and-iron spans across Turtle Creek between Maple…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":231415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-231414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-tx","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115214152248377199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}