Month: March 2011

New Life for the Tree Court

by Robin Cravey

That oblong stretch of hardscape and pecan trees between the parking lot and the north fence received a new name in 2007:  the Tree Court.  Naming it didn’t make it important, but it did focus attention on its importance.  Now, we are preparing to give the Tree Court a new, softer focus.

As FBSP, in 2006, began to advocate for long-delayed maintenance and improvements at the Pool, we continually pointed to the sad state of the trees around the Pool.  Working through the Master Plan with the consultants, we insisted that the trees should receive care.  When the consultants issued their draft master plan in 2007, they made note of all the trees, but they made special note of that newly recognized place:  the Tree Court.

Preserving the Tree Court became a goal of the Master Plan.  The thought of that place without the towering trunks and fluttering crowns of the pecan trees there was a bleak thought.  Through long and deep study, we learned that the trees there suffer from long lack of care, but they also suffer from the tramp, tramp, tramp of hundreds and thousands of feet packing the soil above their roots.
Continue reading “President’s Report”

So where does Barton Creek go when it gets to Barton Springs Pool?  It disappears into the sidewalk beneath your feet on the north side of the Pool into a structure known as the Bypass Tunnel or BT. In its entire 35 plus year history, it has had little or no major maintenance, has endured countless floods, use and abuse, but still it survives, and looks pretty darn good from the topside. When the Barton Springs Pool Master Plan was created, $250,000 was set aside for maintenance of the BT based primarily on its good looks on the outside.

But go inside the BT and the story changes.  It is then that you realize that it is an aging, cracking, 35 year old leaking tunnel that is full of holes which drain the pool and threaten the salamander. It was clear that the BT was going to need more than a facelift. In 2009 the City of Austin commissioned the engineering firm PKA to develop various options, including total replacement.  FBSP representatives attended many public meetings that year to provide input on the various options until a final option was selected, to the tune of $3.5 million.  Everything seemed to be going fine, when suddenly sometime in the summer/fall of 2010, the City of Austin (COA) pulled the plug on the final option and hit the restart button, do not pass go, go back to square one.
Continue reading “The Bypass Tunnel Update, or Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?”