Great Springs Project officials on Oct. 7 told the City of Austin Urban Transportation Commission that the group is seeking city backing in the 2026 bond to build two urban-trail segments and to acquire land needed to complete the Lower Colorado River Trail.

The commission heard an update from Mikey Guralnick, a landscape architect and planner with Great Springs Project, who described the organization as a regional nonprofit working across the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone. "We work throughout the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone between Austin and San Antonio," Guralnick said.

The presentation focused on two elements the group asks the city to prioritize in the 2026 bond: (1) design and construction of an urban-trail segment through Reggie Guerrero Park, including an underpass beneath U.S. 183 to link two city parcels on the river’s south side, and (2) design and construction of a north-river segment that would extend the trail from the CTRMA trailhead at U.S. 183 through the proposed Balm Riverfront District into Bolen District Park on city-owned or APR-acquired land.

Guralnick said his team worked with Austin’s Transportation & Public Works urban trails staff to develop cost estimates for both segments. He told commissioners the Reggie Guerrero Park segment contains complex site conditions — an under-highway crossing, drainage constraints and sections that may require piled or elevated structures — that push its estimate toward the higher end of per-mile urban-trail costs. By contrast, a segment through Roy G. Guerrero Railroad Park was described as a lower-cost, largely flat alignment on existing city right-of-way.

Beyond construction, Great Springs has been coordinating with the city’s Austin Parks & Recreation Department (APR) on a slate of priority acquisitions to secure easements and some fee-simple parcels needed to link the trail between Trigno Park and Hornsby Bend. Guralnick said APR provided the acquisition cost estimate and that Great Springs is advocating for APR funding in the bond to secure the connectivity vision in the city’s urban trails plan.

Guralnick also described two outside funding wins: a watershed-restoration-and-access planning grant from the Bureau of Reclamation, which will fund a six- to eight‑month community engagement and technical planning process led by Agency Landscape and Planning with subconsultants Alta Planning, Siglo Group and Rifeline; and a pending TxDOT grant proposal for $1,800,000 to develop schematic (30%) designs for prioritized trail segments in city and county jurisdictions. "We're waiting to find out in a couple weeks" about the TxDOT award, Guralnick said.

Commissioners pressed on partnership arrangements with the city. Guralnick said Great Springs is in regular coordination with APR, city urban-trails staff and other nonprofit partners, and he described ongoing discussions about developing an interlocal agreement or operations-and-maintenance arrangement that would support co-sponsored funding applications to federal and state programs and long-term park operations.

If the bond advocacy is successful, Great Springs officials said they expect one of the proposed southern segments (Reggie Guerrero Park underpass) to be a tier‑1 candidate for the 2026 bond program and the north-river segment through the Balm/Bolen Riverfront area to be a tier‑2 candidate or a standalone capital project for TPW/parks funding consideration.

The commission did not take a formal vote on the presentation but thanked Great Springs Project staff for the update and cost breakdowns, and commissioners indicated they would consider the proposal during the bond recommendation window.