"That's seven streets that people don't have to worry about crossing," Trent Rondot, conservation and maintenance director for the Houston Parks Board, told Community Impact this year. He was talking about the underpasses built along Brays Bayou west of South Rice Avenue.
That work opened on April 25. This October is the first fall you can ride from the Loop toward South Gessner without waiting for a gap in traffic on Hillcroft. Heading east from South Rice toward Stella Link, Buffalo Speedway and the Texas Medical Center is a different story. The trail work in that direction is still at the stage of choosing a design team. The bid documents posted this month say so directly. For anyone who lives near Braeswood, the bayou now changes character depending on which direction you turn.
What the west side looks like now
Harris County Precinct 4 and the Houston Parks Board describe the opened package as a 4.4-mile system running from Loop 610 to South Gessner Road. Ground broke in January 2025. The sources give different totals for the cost. At the opening, Community Impact reported a $6 million project, partly funded by Precinct 4's People 4 Places initiative, with $3.45 million from the City of Houston's annual economic development grant to the Parks Board. Precinct 4's construction announcement put it at $3.8 million from the precinct and $2.8 million from the Parks Board, which adds up to about $6.6 million.
The headline mileage includes plenty of existing trail. What changed is the experience of riding it. Precinct 4's project announcement lists three kinds of work:
- Seven new pedestrian and bicycle underpasses, at South Rice Avenue, Chimney Rock Road, Hillcroft Avenue, Braeswood Boulevard, Fondren Road, Braes Bayou Drive and Bissonnet Street.
- A new one-mile, 10-foot-wide trail on the north bank between Chimney Rock and Hillcroft that connects to the Atwell Pedestrian Bridge.
- A wider, harder surface west of Fondren. The old 8-foot asphalt trail between Fondren Road and Braeburn Glen was replaced with 10-foot concrete.
The package also includes an ADA-accessible connection from the trail to a METRO bus stop on Mullins Drive.
The underpasses matter most. Before them, a long walk along this part of Brays Bayou meant stopping at every arterial road that crosses the water, and Hillcroft, Fondren and Chimney Rock carry heavy traffic. Officials said at the opening that the underpasses improve access and trail safety for about 20,000 people in the surrounding community. They also said the Brays Bayou Greenway serves more than 150,000 users a year. Former Parks Board CEO Beth White put it plainly to Community Impact: "It's not a lot of miles in the grand scheme of things, but getting those bridge underpasses in there is a game changer in terms of safety and experience for people who use the trail."
The plaza at N. Braeswood and Mullins
The new trail work also has a place to stop. The Captain Herod Memorial Plaza sits on the north side of Brays Bayou where N. Braeswood Boulevard meets Mullins Drive, near 5600 N. Braeswood Blvd., according to the Houston Parks Board. Precinct 4 described the plaza as landscaping, lighting, benches and commemorative signage. The same Precinct 4 page describes a Herod Hero Bench built from the wood of the Herod Hero Tree, which once stood on Beechnut in front of Meyerland Plaza.
The plaza honors Captain Gary L. Herod, a Texas National Guard pilot who in March 1961 guided his failing jet into an open area along the banks of Brays Bayou, away from thousands of nearby homes. Precinct 4's project page places the landing near Atwell. That puts the memorial on the same section of bank the new north-side trail now follows between Chimney Rock and Hillcroft, which the Parks Board built with the Harris County Flood Control District.
Two practical notes. The public sources reviewed for this post don't list permanent trailhead parking, restrooms or water fountains on the new Meyerland segment. At the April ribbon cutting, parking was arranged for that one event only. Check the Parks Board's live map before planning a stop around facilities. Also, Precinct 4's project page still lists a "construction anticipated end date" of mid-2028, even though the package officially opened in April. That field looks out of date, or it may cover related work beyond what opened.
Turning east from South Rice
Everything above ends at South Rice Avenue. The long-term plan is for that not to matter. Rondot told Community Impact the goal is a continuous trail system from Gessner Road to the Texas Medical Center and Hermann Park. That's about 10 miles of new trails and underpasses, so people could walk to the Medical Center without crossing busy streets.
The public record shows where each piece of that eastern plan stands this month:
| Segment | What was said | Where it stands as of October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| South Rice Avenue to Stella Link Road | A new lower-shelf trail with a pedestrian bridge over Willow Waterhole Bayou, described in January 2026 as "out to bid" | No public report of a contract award, contractor, cost, start date or completion date turned up in the sources reviewed |
| Buffalo Speedway to Stella Link Road | About one mile of new 10-foot shared-use path, plus new bridges where Willow Waterhole Bayou and Keegans Bayou meet Brays Bayou | The Parks Board is asking for qualifications from a design, engineering and inspection team, due November 6, 2026 |
| Toward Hermann Park | A separate link downstream from Buffalo Speedway to Hermann Park | Described as a future project, with no schedule published |
The middle row is the newest information. The solicitation on CivCast, contract CM-FY27-TRA003, appeared on a public bid aggregator dated October 10, 2026. It asks for one team to carry the Brays Bayou and Keegans Bayou Trail and Bridges Project from "preliminary investigation and design through bidding," then through construction inspection and materials testing. Submissions are a statement of qualifications only, with no price proposal, and the instructions set the submission deadline at 1 p.m. Central on November 6. The listing shows the bid opening at 2 p.m. that day. That document hires the people who will design the path. It doesn't hire anyone to build it. So the mile of bayou between Buffalo Speedway and Stella Link Road has no construction schedule this fall. It's waiting for a design team to be chosen.
Precinct 4 didn't treat the April opening as the end of the work. At the ceremony, Commissioner Lesley Briones said the Brays Bayou project is one of 50 projects totaling $220 million that the precinct has underway. People 4 Places opens each year for residents to suggest infrastructure projects. In January, Community Impact reported that most of the Brays Bayou projects not finished in 2025 were slated to start construction in 2026 or 2027. The new solicitation shows the eastern link still falls in the "slated" group.
Using the bayou this October
The finished western side is the easy outing. Pick up the trail near South Rice, go under the streets toward Hillcroft, and cross to the north bank for the new mile between Chimney Rock and Hillcroft. The plaza at N. Braeswood and Mullins is a natural turnaround.
Two events nearby fill out the month:
- Nature Discovery Center Fall Festival & Pumpkin Patch, October 17 and 18 at 7112 Newcastle St. in Bellaire, according to Community Impact's October event guide.
- Park to Port Bike Ride, October 24 from 8 to 11:30 a.m. It starts at Bayou Parkland, 6532 Almeda Road, and ends at Mason Park, according to Community Impact's listing.
If you plan to ride farther east on your own, check closures first. Houston Bike Guide's closures page lists a Brays Bayou Trail closure at Spur 5 tied to TxDOT's SH 35 expansion, with a detour via MLK Boulevard, Old Spanish Trail and Lidstone Street. That page isn't dated, and TxDOT's project page confirms the highway work but not the trail's status, so treat the closure as possible rather than confirmed. If you'd rather follow a set route toward the Medical Center, the Parks Board publishes a suggested Brays ride. It starts at Hermann Park near S. MacGregor Way and uses a pedestrian underpass and the Columbia Trail to rejoin the bayou trail.
Brenna Abels has followed infrastructure like the bayou trail, which shapes how a house near Brays Bayou is used day to day, since 2004. If you live near the bayou and want to talk about how the new underpasses and the planned eastern link may affect your street, Brenna Abels is glad to talk it through. Book an appointment.
