This story has been updated.
The River Road Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration project is seeking public input as it enters the design phase.
The project — a federally funded collaboration between Bexar County, the City of San Antonio, the San Antonio River Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — seeks to restore and maintain the native life in a half-mile section of the San Antonio River along River Road, stretching south from Mulberry Avenue toward U.S. Highway 281.
Public information sessions for the project will begin this week, with the first one being 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday at the YMCA TriPoint Center. Staff members from the county, river authority and the Corps will be on-site to discuss the project and answer questions about the restoration efforts.
A feasibility study for the project has been completed, said Brian Mast, the river authority’s government affairs manager. The results of that study, which took place from 2018 to 2020, can be viewed here. The study found significant erosion issues on the river’s banks and that several invasive species have moved into the area, Mast said, including giant cane reeds, chinaberry trees, Chinese privets and elephant ears.
Mast said the public information sessions are aimed at “putting everybody on common ground as we start the initial design.”
The project will also look to “increase the habitat value for migratory and resident bird populations” and to fix a low water crossing where fish are getting stuck, Mast added. Public input was gathered during the feasibility study stage through multiple meetings, both public and with the River Road Neighborhood Association, he said, and will continue through the design phase.
Design work is set to continue through summer 2025, and construction is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2027, said Zia Burns, a program manager for the Corps’ Fort Worth District. The project’s cost is estimated at $13 million, she added.
“The design and implementation of this project are fully federally funded,” Burns said. “The San Antonio River Authority’s share includes the real estate, utility allocation and additional efforts that the San Antonio River Authority is taking on.”
Mast said those additional efforts could include “betterments” that go beyond the base project. Such additions would be decided by the community, he said.
This could include removing Avenue A from the area and converting it to a hike and bike trail consistent with the Howard Peak Greenway Trail System, Mast added.
Since January 2022, the possible removal of some trees and the addition of a retaining wall to parts of the San Antonio River within Brackenridge Park as part of a city-led, voter-approved 2022 bond project has been hotly contested by a small group of residents who oppose the city’s bird mitigation efforts in this area and others who believe the river’s bend near Joske’s Pavillion is sacred.
Residents also experienced a shock that same month when trees along the banks of the San Antonio River’s Mission Reach segment were removed and mulched by the San Antonio River Authority as part of a systematic update to help control floodwaters.
For the River Road project, native trees are not planned to be uprooted unless it is for equipment access or safety reasons during construction, Mast noted, adding this is not like the Mission Reach project in either scope or magnitude.
“The intent is maintaining the natural environment, with improvements,” he said. “We’re not looking at retaining walls. It’ll be a natural ecosystem restoration.”
The river authority has remained in contact with the Brackenridge Park Conservancy on this project, said Derek Boese, the river authority’s general manager.
The project also was presented to the Breckenridge Park Stakeholder Advisory Committee, said Brackenridge Park Conservancy CEO Terry Brechtel.
“I’m speaking for the conservancy in saying that I feel very confident that this project will meet all the guiding principles, new valuation criteria and then some,” she said. “I would say that … additional … community input is really very beneficial to this project.”
