WILLIAMSON COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE

 

NEWS RELEASE

 

Brushy Creek Regional Trail Wins National Design Award

 

October 26, 2004 (Williamson County, TX) – Williamson County’s Brushy Creek Regional Trail placed top in the nation for innovation in planning and design at the 17^th National Trail Symposium in Austin on Saturday, October 23.  The trail was designed by Hall-Bargainer, Inc., a Round Rock based landscape architecture firm.  The award was given by American Trails, a national, nonprofit organization working on behalf of all trail interests.  American Trails’ National Trails Awards program recognizes exemplary work in creating a national system of trails to meet the recreation, health, and travel needs of all Americans.

“We are very excited that Hall-Bargainer received this award for their work on Williamson County’s Brushy Creek Regional Trail,” said Jim Rodgers, Williamson County Parks and Recreation director.  “We, of course, feel that it is a beautiful trail created through cooperation with many entities and are happy to see it getting national recognition.”

Criteria for the planning/design award was that, “Nominee(s) must have demonstrated problem solving through innovative methods on a trail project. The project must have included successful aspects of public participation and/or public agency involvement and have been planned to enhance the recreational trails opportunities within the project area.”

            The nomination form for the award states that the design for this parkland posed some unique challenges in that the trail crosses several jurisdictional boundaries and travels along an active flow creek.   In order to plan and design the facility, the design team at Hall/Bargainer, Inc. overcame the organizational challenge of working with multiple governmental entities to plan the trail and met the challenge of designing a trail that not only preserves the historical and natural features of the environment, but interprets them.

            Planning and design of the Brushy Creek Regional Trail began in early 1999 when Williamson County received a 100-acre parkland donation along the Brushy Creek corridor from a private housing development company.  The county did not have a parks department at the time and commissioned Hall/Bargainer to evaluate possible parkland uses within and along the corridor.  The firm coordinated and facilitated monthly meetings with local parks and recreation directors for approximately a year.  Through these meetings, the group ultimately determined that a regional hike and bike trail stretching from one end of the county to the other would be the best use for the historic and environmentally sensitive drainage corridor.  Williamson County, subsequently, contracted with the firm to design the first phase of the Brushy Creek Regional Trail and Conservation Corridor. 

            On June 7, National Trails Day 2003, a four-year-old dream became a reality.  Representatives from four local governments, two municipal utility districts, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Lower Colorado River Authority along with private landowners and neighbors came together to celebrate the grand opening of the first three-mile segment of an envisioned 30-mile cross-County trail. 

In addition to receiving this award, Williamson County’s Brushy Creek Regional Trail was awarded the designation of National Recreation Trail in June by Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton.  

Brushy Creek Regional Trail stretches from the Creekside Trail Head at the intersection of Brushy Creek Road and Great Oaks Drive west to the new City of Cedar Park Brushy Creek Lake Park.  Use of the trail is free, and it is open to the public from sunrise to sunset.  For more information about Williamson County Parks and Recreation, visit their web-site at www.wilco.org/parks.html.

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