Between West 24th and West 34th streets, the new pieces of the Shoal Creek Trail all run alongside North Lamar Boulevard. The pieces down in the creek corridor, the shaded stretches through Pease Park and the parkland north of 31st Street, are the ones still closed, still in design, or still without construction funding. Anyone walking or riding from Pemberton Heights this month will see that split at nearly every block.
The City of Austin describes this stretch as the last major set of gaps in a trail that otherwise runs from Lady Bird Lake to US 183. It splits the stretch into three pieces. A South Gap runs from West 24th Street to 2800 Shoal Creek Boulevard and is tied to the landslide. A Middle Gap runs from West 29th to West 31st Street. A North Gap runs from West 31st to West 34th Street. Each gap has its own project, its own funding status, and in two cases its own detour, and those detours run on opposite sides of Lamar.
| Segment | What it is | Status | Where to walk or ride instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shoal Creek Blvd/Lamar south to the rock hop north of 24th | 12-foot shared-use path along Lamar | Open since January 2025 | Not needed |
| Gaston Ave to the Janet Fish Bridge, in Pease Park | Resurfacing and accessibility repairs | City closure window April 27 to November 2026 | Sidewalk on the west side of N. Lamar, Shoal Creek Blvd to 29th |
| Roughly 26th to 27th Street, in Pease Park | Creek and trail blocked by landslide debris | Closed indefinitely; South Gap in design | Paved sidewalk on the east side of N. Lamar |
| West 29th to West 31st | Middle Gap urban trail and crossings | Completed July 2026 | Not needed |
| West 31st to West 34th | North Gap parkland trail | Engineering funded; construction funding not identified | Street route with traffic calming |
Both finished rows are Lamar-side work. Austin Parks and Recreation started the first in October 2024, replacing a 6-foot sidewalk on North Lamar with a 12-foot shared-use path from the Shoal Creek Boulevard intersection south to the rock hop just north of 24th Street. That segment opened in January 2025. The second is the Middle Gap, which the City finished in July 2026, three months ahead of schedule.
The Middle Gap is the most visible change along the neighborhood's edge, and it also changed how drivers move through the area. The City's July 2026 update lists the work:
The fourth item matters most to drivers in Pemberton Heights. Anyone heading south on Lamar who used to cut left at San Gabriel now makes that turn one signal earlier, at 29th. The City phased the change so the new 29th Street turn opened before the San Gabriel turn closed.
On August 22, the City and Shoal Creek Conservancy marked the Middle Gap's completion together with the neighborhood bikeway improvements connected to it. That bikeway work belongs to the North University-Heritage-Rosedale Neighborhood Bikeways project. Its first phase, finished in summer 2026, added speed cushions and humps, signage and wayfinding markings on West 30th, West 31st, West 33rd and West 34th streets, West Avenue, Rio Grande Street and other streets in North University and Heritage, plus signs and markings in Rosedale on West 40th Street, West 41st Street and Burnet Road. It also added a pedestrian crossing island on West 30th Street at West Drive and East Drive. In practice, the Lamar improvements now connect to calmer cross streets east of Lamar.
The Pease Park segment from Gaston Avenue to the Janet Fish Bridge, which sits just south of 29th Street, is the shady part of the trail closest to Pemberton Heights. It has been in poor condition for years. Shoal Creek Conservancy describes rough surfaces and manhole covers that were hard to get around, and calls the stretch a missing link in an All Ages and Abilities trail network.
Austin Parks and Recreation closed it on April 27, 2026 to resurface the trail and restore accessibility. The original estimate was late June. According to the Conservancy's trail closures page, permitting delays and crew availability pushed the timeframe to an estimated November 2026. The City's parks closures page lists the same closure window, April 27 to November 2026. While the trail is closed, the detour uses the sidewalk on the west side of North Lamar between Shoal Creek Boulevard and 29th Street.
Of the parkland pieces, this one has the shortest path back to normal. It is a maintenance project with a posted end date, run by one department, on a trail that already exists.
A few blocks south, the trail breaks for a different reason. Landslides in May 2018 and May 2019 damaged public and private property along the Shoal Creek Trail in Pease Park. The debris still blocks both the creek and the trail from about 26th to 27th Street. The City lists the closure as Shoal Creek Trail, 24th to 29th along N. Lamar, closed indefinitely. Austin Parks and Recreation is working with Public Works and Austin Transportation and Public Works to plan, design and improve the detour route east of the creek.
That detour runs on the paved sidewalk on the east side of North Lamar. So for the moment, someone heading south from 29th Street toward 24th uses a detour on the west side of Lamar for the resurfacing closure and another on the east side for the landslide closure. They are two separate projects with two separate fixes.
The landslide area falls inside the City's South Gap. Shoal Creek Conservancy says the South Gap went through public review in 2024 and is in the design phase. The City lists construction funding for the South Gap as identified. During the earlier public process, people asked to keep two-way car traffic on Shoal Creek Boulevard. The revised South Gap plan keeps it, and adds a walking lane on the north side of the southern bridge, a raised crossing and bicycle shared-lane markings.
The North Gap follows the same pattern. On the East Segment along West 31st Street, the in-street pilot trail that began in May 2021 has been removed. In its place are traffic calming, shared-lane markings, and the restored in-street walking lane on the south curb, now with a low physical barrier. The widened sidewalk that got the strongest support for that segment has no funding yet.
On the West Segment along Shoal Creek Boulevard, the favored option upgrades the sidewalk through the park to a full trail. The City has funded preliminary engineering for that parkland trail from West 31st to West 34th Street. Construction funding for the parkland segment has not been identified. Neither has funding for the full traffic signal at West 31st Street and Lamar, which drew the strongest support of the three options for that intersection.
Taken together with the South Gap, the whole 24th-to-34th stretch reads the same way. The Lamar-side work is open. The parkland work is closed for repairs, blocked by landslide debris, or limited to an engineering study.
The City also began building the FM 2222 underpass at Shoal Creek Boulevard in August 2026. It will create a continuous connection to the on-street bikeways along Shoal Creek Boulevard and the existing parkland nature trail. Intermittent trail detours and vehicle lane closures are expected until construction wraps up, which is expected in summer 2027. For anyone in Pemberton Heights who rides the full length of the creek, that is one more spot to watch on a longer outing.
The south end of the trail at Pease Park still has a full calendar. The Pease Park events calendar lists these free or low-key outings for the rest of the year:
For anyone coming on foot or by bike from north of 29th Street, the Lamar-side paths are the dependable way in. The west-side sidewalk detour applies until the Gaston-to-Janet Fish Bridge repairs are finished, and the east-side sidewalk remains the route around the landslide.
If you're weighing how close to live to the Shoal Creek Trail, or how to describe a home near it when you sell, Anna Morrison Lee can walk you through the block-by-block details along Pemberton Heights' eastern edge. Schedule a private consultation.
3825 Lake Austin Blvd Ste 501 Austin TX 78703
3825 Lake Austin Blvd Ste 501 Austin TX 78703
