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Yet another one of San Antonio’s waterways has been re-imagined.
About a hundred stakeholders, San Antonio River Authority employees and park fans assembled at contemporary art center’s Ruby City for Thursday’s grand opening of the last stretch of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park.
The park runs roughly north and south paralleling I-35 for 2.2 miles.
“We are very excited to have all of you here today as we celebrate the completion of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park,” said Derek Boese, General Manager of the San Antonio River Authority. “This park is a full 13,000 linear feet — or 2.2 miles — through the western edge of downtown San Antonio.”
Former Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said the San Pedro Creek and the spring it flowed from are more historic than many may realize.
“It's actually where we started our city in 1718, with the Presidio, the Alamo was there. It's really more historic than the river,” Wolff said.
His support for the project was a key part of getting the project off the ground. He said as businesses and homeowners build next to the creek, their taxes will pay for the cost of building it.
“When I was county judge, I think we probably put close to $260 million in this project. But we've got development occurring all along the creek now, and that's what you want to see,” he said. “We had the Frost Bank go right up on the creek, the Alameda Theater, with the new project going up now by Graham Weston — I think it's a 14-story apartment building — with UTSA new building going up. The baseball park [is] supposed to go on the creek."
Decades ago, San Pedro Creek had been turned into a three-sided concrete ditch, so one didn’t have to look far to find those who couldn’t conceive of it becoming attractive.
“I think there's always skepticism when you start a big project like this, or Mission Reach or Museum Reach. But success also breeds success,” Boese said.
The Mission and Museum Reach projects re-imagined the San Antonio River, and are considered successes. To look at the landscaping, public art and wildlife that’s already moved in at San Pedro Creek, its primary stated aim might surprise you.
“Flood control remains the primary function, just like Mission Reach,” he said. “While it is an amazing ecosystem restoration project, it still is a flood control project.”
To make it so, they dug the creek deeper and far wider, plus re-established permeable ground on either side to absorb flood events—11 acres worth over the two plus miles.
“And then you have that enjoyment, that cultural aspect, where you've been able to highlight artists, both local and national, to come in and really make something special that the community can enjoy and serve these utilitarian purposes, too,” Boese said.
Dan Green was project manager for several years on the park. All told, they had to replace 12 bridges along its length. He pointed to a bridge a couple of hundred yards away.
“Right over here we had the Union Pacific Bridge that we had to replace. We had early work that we did up to it, but we were only given 75 hours to do the entire bridge replacement,” Green said. “We took the track out of service for that 75 hours, and removed the existing bridge, built the new bridge, laid the track — all in that that three-day period,” he said.
Green said he's looking forward to seeing people use the area, but the wildlife has already returned.
“A lot of the black-crowned night-herons, our yellow-crowned night-herons, have all moved back in,” Green said. “So it's also giving that wildlife corridor there in the middle of downtown.”
