This week construction crews began work on the long-awaited pedestrian bridge that will link the Katy Trail with DART’s Mockingbird Station and other trails that head north toward the top of White Rock Lake.

Jason Ney, park planning and acquisitions manager for Dallas Park and Recreation, told the Dallas Morning News that the project should create new recreational opportunities for people wanting to safely cross the six-lane road at 5307 Mockingbird. “It’s an important connection. The Katy Trail is our most heavily used trail,” Ney says.

The bridge has been in discussion for more than a decade. Beginning the project was a more difficult task than originally thought, according to the DMN story. “A grid of easement rights needed to be approved by numerous land owners. And the initial design was scrapped because the planned conventional construction method threatened to put too much weight on the nearby DART tunnel that lies under Central Expressway.”

Last year Katy Trail extension bridges were put up over Abrams Road and Lovers.