The planned 1.1 mile boardwalk to be constructed over Lady Bird Lake received a $2.4 million dollar commitment today from the Trail Foundation.
The organization announced it’s almost done raising $3 million needed as part of the construction cost to build the boardwalk in one phase. The City of Austin will spend another $14.4 million in mobility bond money approved by Austin voters last year to build the boardwalk.
Susan Rankin is executive director of the Trail Foundation.
“After the project is put out to bid to qualified low bidders and the city accepts a bid, we will know what the actual hard construction costs are," she said. "They’re now projected to be between $15 million and $16 million and the Trail Foundation has committed $3 million in private funding toward the total amount of the hard construction costs.”
The rest of the $600,000 from The Trail Foundation will be given to the City before construction is over. The board is expected to take between 18 months and two years to finish. The Trail Foundation says it will continue to raise another $2 million to spend on trail beautification.