TYLER, Texas — A popular trail in the Rose City is about to get a major expansion.
Legacy Trail is in the southwest corner in the city of Tyler that is 4.5 miles long. The current trail begins at Three Lakes Parkway and goes to Flint. The second phase of the Legacy Trail expansion has started and it will add 1.7 more miles.
According ot the city of Tyler, a new trailhead will start at the Stewart Park on Frankston Highway and will provide a 12-foot-wide trail for hikers and bikers, up to Old Noonday Road, through Winters Park, and ending at Peete Elementary School on Bellwood Road.
"This phase two of Legacy Trail is from future steward park off of State Highway 155 all the way up to Peete Elementary. It's been bid through TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) so TxDOT will oversee construction of this project. So we anticipate construction will start this fall and be complete near the end of 2024," City of Tyler traffic engineer Cameron Williams said.
The overall construction cost is about $3 million. Eighty percent of that cost will be covered by TxDOT through grants and the city will cover the rest.
There will still be a gap between the two portions of the trail. That final connector will be completed alongside the Old Jacksonville Highway project, which will make the four-lane highway to a six-lane road in Tyler. Construction will start in 2026.