The new trail along North Lamar between 29th and 31st Street was scheduled to take about a year to build. The City finished it in July 2026, three months ahead of schedule. A short walk south, the shaded stretch of the Shoal Creek Trail between Shoal Creek Boulevard and the Janet Fish Bridge has been closed since April 27. It was originally expected back by late June, and the estimate is now November.
This fall, the widest and newest walking surface between Pease Park and 31st Street sits on the Lamar side, next to traffic. The creekside path, the reason most people walk down from Bryker Woods in the first place, is the piece still waiting. Once you know which pieces are open, it's easier to decide where an October morning in the park actually begins.
Lamar Finished First
The 29th to 31st Street work belongs to the City's Shoal Creek Trail Connectivity Gaps Project, which planners call the Middle Gap. When construction began in November 2025, Shoal Creek Conservancy listed what was coming: a buffered paved trail on the west side of Lamar, a new southbound left-turn lane on Lamar at 29th Street, a new pedestrian crossing on the north side of 31st Street, and ADA upgrades to the sidewalks.
The finished segment has a 12-foot urban trail on the west side of Lamar and a new 10-foot terracotta bike path. According to the City's project page, the path is shared-use from 31st Street to 30½ Street, and the separate bike path runs from 30½ Street down to 29th. The City and the Conservancy celebrated the completion on August 22, together with the connected neighborhood bikeway improvements. The City's project page has the full scope.
Farther south on the same side of the street, in January 2025, a 12-foot shared-use path opened on Lamar from the Shoal Creek Boulevard intersection south to the rock hop just north of 24th Street, replacing a 6-foot sidewalk. Taken together, the Lamar edge of the park has been rebuilt in pieces over two years, and those pieces now carry more of the foot traffic than they were designed to.
The Shaded Stretch Is the Late One
The closure between Shoal Creek Boulevard and the Janet Fish Bridge is a repair job by Austin Parks and Recreation, not new construction. In March 2026 the Conservancy described the segment from Gaston Avenue to the bridge just south of 29th Street as substandard for years, with rough surfaces and manhole covers that are hard to get around. It called the stretch a missing link in the All Ages and Abilities trail network. The crews are resurfacing the trail and restoring accessibility.
The schedule slipped because of permitting delays and crew availability. On the City's facilities closure tracker, the trail entry, last updated September 9, still lists the end date as November 2026. That is a month, not a day, and it has already moved once.
Until it reopens, the detour runs along the sidewalk on the west side of North Lamar between Shoal Creek Boulevard and 29th Street. At 29th, the detour meets the new Middle Gap trail heading north. A loop from Bryker Woods down to Pease Park and back now follows Lamar for most of its length, then drops toward the creek where the trail is open.
| Segment | Status as of mid-October 2026 | What to use instead | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lamar, 29th to 31st Street | Open, finished July 2026 | Nothing needed | Celebrated August 22 |
| Lamar, Shoal Creek Blvd to rock hop near 24th | Open since January 2025 | Nothing needed | Complete |
| Creek trail, Shoal Creek Blvd to Janet Fish Bridge | Closed for resurfacing | West-side N Lamar sidewalk to 29th | Estimated November 2026 |
| Creek trail, about 26th to 27th Street | Blocked by landslide debris | East-side N Lamar sidewalk | In design, no date |
| FM 2222 at Shoal Creek Blvd | Underpass under construction | Intermittent detours | Through summer 2027 |
The Closures That Will Outlast This Year
The November estimate is the only closure on the corridor with a near-term end date. The other two run on much longer clocks.
The blockage at roughly 26th to 27th Street dates to landslides in May 2018 and May 2019. Debris from those slides still blocks both the creek and the trail, and walkers detour to the paved sidewalk on the east side of Lamar. The City has folded the site into the South Gap segment of its 24th to 34th Street project, which went through public review in 2024 and is now in design. The landslide also limits Gaston Green, the off-leash dog area, where regular southbound access toward Wooten Woods stays closed.
To the north, construction on the FM 2222 underpass at Shoal Creek Boulevard began in August 2026 and is expected to continue through summer 2027. When it's done, the trail will connect continuously to the on-street bikeways along Shoal Creek Boulevard and the existing nature trail. Until then, expect intermittent trail detours and vehicle lane closures. For the North Gap between 31st and 34th Street, the City says preliminary engineering and traffic calming are funded, but it has not identified construction funding for the parkland trail segment.
So the creek path north of the park should be whole again by year's end if November holds. The landslide gap south of it and the corridor's north end will take longer.
Where the Park's Fall Calendar Sits
With the creekside repair closing off the park's northern approach, nearly everything on the Pease Park Conservancy calendar this fall happens at the south end. Most events use the 1100 Kingsbury Street address at Kingsbury Commons, the Great Lawn, the Treehouse, or the Tudor Cottage. The birding walk meets at Live Oak Meadow, 2208 Parkway. Most events are free and ask you to register.
- Wednesday, October 14 and Wednesday, October 28, 10:00 a.m.: Toddler Yoga with ATX Yoga Girl on the Great Lawn.
- Friday, October 16, 7:30 to 9:30 a.m.: Birding at Pease Park with Travis Audubon at Live Oak Meadow, led by Chris Gunter and Nicole Netherton, with loaner binoculars on hand.
- Sunday, October 18, 9:30 a.m.: Sunday Social, Gather & Flow's monthly all-levels yoga class followed by coffee and conversation on the Great Lawn.
- Wednesday, October 21, 6:30 p.m.: Sound Bath in the Treehouse with ATX Yoga Girl. The $12 tickets for the net at the top are sold out. Free registration is still open for the bottom of the Treehouse and the Great Lawn.
- Friday, October 23, 8:00 to 9:30 p.m.: Mothing at Pease Park with Dr. Curtis Eckerman at Kingsbury Commons, a field moth study held during the Texas Parks and Wildlife Texas Pollinator Bioblitz, with photos logged to iNaturalist.
- Saturday, October 24, 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.: Pollinator Play Date, part of Austin's Roots & Wings Festival, with a puppet-making workshop from Small Wonders and a session on propagating plants for native pollinators.
- Sunday, October 25, noon to 1:30 p.m.: Becoming the Wind, a beginner-friendly movement workshop with Morgan Teel of Dance Waterloo at the Tudor Cottage & Terrace, inspired by Joy Harjo's poem "Running."
- Tuesday, November 10: Lives Remembered, a tour sharing the stories of some of the people enslaved on the 365-acre Woodlawn homestead, where the park now sits. Research has found that at least 37 individuals were directly enslaved or leased as enslaved labor by the Pease family.
The Pease Park Splash Pad closed for maintenance on October 12 and returned to its adjusted operating schedule on October 13.
Malin's Spot, and What Comes Next
One familiar destination at the park's south end is gone. Malin, the 18-foot troll sculpture by Danish recycled-materials artist Thomas Dambo, was unveiled in March 2024 as his first troll in Texas. She burned in an early-morning fire on May 21. At a June memorial, the Austin American-Statesman reported, bags of her ashes were handed out as "Malin's Magic Mix," a soil-like substitute for gardens. For now, the paper reported, she is commemorated with a patch of gravel and a circle of rocks around the original bowl she held. The Conservancy's art page now lists her under past installations.
The bigger plans for the park are also still on paper. The Conservancy's Vision Plan page says Phase 1, Kingsbury Commons, is complete and Phase 2 planning is underway. At a June 22 Parks and Recreation Board meeting, the Conservancy said it hoped to bring back an update on its phase plan later in 2026, without naming construction work or dates.
That makes this year's fundraiser fit the season. Luminarium: Phases is on Friday, November 6, at Kingsbury Commons. The Conservancy describes it as a celebration of "what's next for Pease Park," and individual tickets and raffle tickets are on sale now. The dress theme is Celestial Whimsy with a Western Flair. Pecos Jane Vintage, a woman-owned shop in East Austin, is the official style sponsor and will donate 10% of proceeds to the Conservancy when shoppers mention Luminarium before November 6. If the repair finishes on its estimated schedule, the gala will fall in the same month the creek trail north of the park reopens.
At Jana Birdwell, we track the details that shape daily life in Bryker Woods, from trail reopening dates to which end of Pease Park has the calendar this month. If you'd like to talk through how these Shoal Creek changes affect your own corner of Central Austin, Request a Private Consultation.
