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Longer Walk for a Famed Attraction
Published Mar 05, 2009

Alamo Area officials have broken ground on an ambitious expansion in both directions for San Antonio’s famed River Walk.

(This article updates information from the 2009 print edition of Business Images Alamo Area.) It’s the tourist hub of Texas visited each year by millions of people. But for all its fame and popularity, San Antonio’s River Walk could still be some­thing of a genie in the bottle, waiting to be unleashed.

True, the existing Paseo del Rio already provides blocks of walkways that wind under bridges and through downtown, connecting bars, shops and restaurants with tourism magnets like the Alamo.

Throngs of people line its banks to watch a classic American tradition – the annual Texas Cavalier’s River Parade, where festooned floats drift down the river as part of the Fiesta San Antonio.

But once you get out of the heart of downtown, the River Walk ends even as miles of urban riverfront continue. Steep banks along the San Antonio River, thick vegetation or no paths mean that following the river becomes practically impossible – or undesirable.

But that potential is now being tapped, as a $279 million expansion moves ahead, with plans to add a dozen miles of river improvements to the south and north of downtown.

The project is divided into two branches – the Museum Reach to down­town’s north, and the Mission Reach to the south.

The four-mile Museum Reach will take the River Walk into Brackenridge Park, passing near the historic Pearl Brewery and San Antonio Museum of Art. The section includes a stretch of light-industrial development that largely ignores the river.

But the first phase of the extension is transforming the area, adding boat landings, a harbor, lighting, benches and pocket parks, investments expected to be a catalyst for new homes, hotels and restaurants.

“It’s definitely going to unleash the potential in the area north of downtown that has long since been neglected,” says Steven Schauer, manager of external com­munications for the San Antonio River Authority, one of many agencies involved in the project.

A similar change is planned for the Mission Reach, which, at eight miles, will be twice the length of the northern expansion and will restore the ecosystem and provide hiking and biking access along the San Antonio River to near Missions Concepcion, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano and Espada.

Planners expect the extension to attract corporate headquarters, retail development and recreation such as bicycling and canoeing.

The Mission Reach project will bring the river back from a straight drainage channel to a natural, meandering course lined with cobblestones.

The result should help restore habitat for Guadalupe bass, blue gill and other native species and reintroduce native trees, grass and plants along the river’s bank, including Texas bluebonnets, but­tonbush shrubs, and pecan and wild olive trees that will feed wildlife.

Cities, such as Los Angeles, have looked at the project as a way to revive urban ecosystems, Schauer says.

Story by Sam Scott
Photo by Todd Bennett

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Headline:
Longer Walk for a Famed Attraction

Summary:
San Antonio is expanding its popular River Walk and creating more access to its riverfront

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