For years the Katy Trail's southern end ran into a dead end and a retaining wall at Victory Avenue and Houston Street. As of Oct. 20, that spot is The Loop Plaza. The plaza links the Katy Trail to the Hi Line Connector, so the trail keeps going west under I-35E into the Design District and toward the Trinity Strand Trail. The plaza is finished. The last stretch past the end of Hi Line Drive is still a construction site, and the city expects it to open in pieces through the first half of 2027.
A Retaining Wall Became a Front Porch
The Loop Dallas calls the plaza the "front porch" of its 50-mile trail system. TBG Partners designed it, and it is formally named The Loop Plaza, Powered by the Addy Foundation. The Loop Dallas built it with the City of Dallas and private donors. The design solves a height problem. The Katy Trail sits above street level, and the plaza sits below it. An elevated pedestrian and bike bridge now carries the trail over the plaza, and an ADA-compliant ramp connects the two levels. The metalwork takes its shape from the exposed escarpment along the Katy Trail and from the outside of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.
According to The Loop, the Katy Trail gets about four million visits a year. Most of that traffic used to turn around at the south end. Now the green space under the bridge gives people a place to stop, and the ramp gives them a way to keep going.
D Magazine reported that the opening celebration featured Cara Mía Theatre. The magazine later published photos from the event. Speaking to The Dallas Morning News before the opening, Loop executive director Philip Haigh said the plaza arrives while "a lot of decisions" are being made about "where we're going as a city."
The Loop also describes the plaza as the first major project to carry the improvements around American Airlines Center and South Victory up into North Victory Avenue. That matters because the plaza is where the Hi Line Connector starts.
The Mile West of the Plaza
The Loop describes the Hi Line Connector as a one-mile urban trail that carries the Katy Trail through Victory Park and the Design District. SWA Group designed and engineered it for The Loop Dallas as a public-private partnership with the city, with federal funding behind it. Heading west from the plaza, the route runs like this:
- Down the ramp from the Katy Trail bridge to plaza level at Victory Avenue and Houston Street.
- Under I-35E and the DART bridges, a route the plaza opened toward the Design District. The connector passes under active DART and TRE rail lines. At the DART overpass there is a mural by local artists, which The Loop says was the first time a Dallas bridge facade was turned into public art.
- Across Oak Lawn Avenue at Hi Line Drive, at what The Loop calls the city's first mid-intersection crossing. This stretch also has a 12-foot-wide path shared by walkers, runners and cyclists, plus new lighting and responsive pedestrian signals.
- Along Hi Line Drive past Delilah at 1616 Hi Line Drive. The Dallas Morning News reported that the restaurant opened Feb. 3, 2026, and reviewed it the following week.
- To the end of Hi Line Drive, where the city is building the Trinity Strand Trail Hi-Line Span. The city's 2025 groundbreaking announcement gave the site as 1998 Hi Line Dr. and described a bridge with a lookout plaza.
For anyone planning a route, The Loop publishes the connector on Ride with GPS.
Why the Final Stretch Is Taking Longer
The Hi-Line Span covers more than one crossing. According to the agenda for the Sept. 14, 2026 board meeting of the city's Design District tax increment financing district, the project includes a bridge across Turtle Creek and connector trail sections toward Market Center Boulevard and Irving Boulevard. At that meeting, city staff gave the most recent public timeline:
| Piece of the project | Status at the Sept. 14 meeting | Projected timing |
|---|---|---|
| Hi-Line Span bridge and trailhead plaza | Under construction since May 2025 | Around the end of 2026, when staff said that portion could open |
| Trail section under Market Center Boulevard | Retaining wall being redesigned at the city transportation department's request | First or second quarter of 2027 |
| Final pedestrian bridge | Last piece to be built | First or second quarter of 2027 |
| Full project | Under construction | Early to mid 2027 |
The budget history explains the schedule. Staff said construction costs rose while the project waited to start. In November 2024 the board raised the budget from $7 million to a ceiling of $9.7 million, based on bids plus extras such as burying overhead utilities and a prefabricated bridge near Irving Boulevard. After work began, more problems turned up. The drill shafts for the pedestrian bridge had to go deeper than planned, and the west side needed extra concrete reinforcement and safety handrails. On top of that, the city's transportation department asked for a different type of retaining wall under the Market Center Boulevard bridge. At the September meeting, staff recommended another $500,000, which would raise the project's ceiling to $10.2 million.
Those details shape the opening order. The bridge and lookout plaza at the end of Hi Line Drive could open first. The stretch under Market Center Boulevard depends on the retaining wall redesign. The second pedestrian bridge is scheduled last because crews need access through the Market Center area to build it.
The Trail on the Other Side
The Hi-Line Span is how you'll reach the Trinity Strand Trail, which is already a long route. Friends of the Trinity Strand Trail describes a finished 4.7-mile multiuse trail through the Design and Medical districts. It follows the original channel of the Trinity River and links toward Victory Park, Downtown, the Katy Trail, Uptown and the Trinity Skyline Trail. The group formed in 2002, according to The Loop. It is now working on a connection to Pegasus Park, which would widen the network toward the Southwestern Medical District, Dallas Market Center, the Stemmons Corridor and White Rock Lake.
All of this is part of The Loop's bigger goal, a 50-mile circuit around the city. The Dallas Morning News reported that over the past decade the nonprofit has worked to add 11 miles to an existing 39-mile trail system. Board member Jeff Ellerman summed up the group's mantra as "connecting Dallas to Dallas." The same article said the organization plans to launch the Discovery Gateway on the Sylvan Avenue bridge this year.
On the Calendar Before the Year Ends
The groups that look after these trails have several dates coming up:
- Wednesday, Nov. 11, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friends of the Trinity Strand Trail lists a trail cleanup starting from Mercer Company, 2461 N. Stemmons Freeway, on its events page.
- Tuesday, Dec. 1. Friends of the Katy Trail has marked Giving Tuesday on its calendar.
- Wednesday, Dec. 2, 4:30 to 6 p.m. Holiday on the Trail, the Friends of the Katy Trail party at Snyder's Union on the Trail.
- Around the end of 2026. City staff's projected window for the Hi-Line Span bridge and trailhead plaza at the end of Hi Line Drive.
Changes like a new trail link show up in daily routines and in what a property is worth, and that's the kind of local detail we follow across Dallas. If you're curious how the new link around Victory Park and the Design District could affect a home you own, or one you're considering, Robert and Lisa at Alvarez Signature Group are happy to talk it through with you directly. Get in Touch.
