The Trinity Forest Spine Trail South Phase project page has tracked this segment's progress through a funding story that arrived in stages. A $12 million RAISE Grant was the anchor. Then $18 million in additional public partner funding from TxDOT, the City of Dallas, and Dallas County brought the total investment for the South Phase to $36 million. The May 30 City Council action on the $16.1 million construction award moves the project from funded to building.

Jeff Ellerman of The Loop Dallas called the segment "the most complicated to advance" in the network's development, a description that reflects the reality of stitching together land acquisition, environmental review, utility coordination, and multi-agency funding in a corridor that includes former industrial land and an active DART rail line connection.

Parkdale Lake and the Oncor Donation

The 110-acre Trinity Forest Spine Trail / Parkdale Lake segment's centerpiece, at the heart of this segment has a specific history worth noting. The site was an industrial utility property operated by Oncor before the company donated it as parkland. The city has classified this donation as the largest parkland dedication in Dallas since 1937, a figure that puts the gift in historical context: Dallas has not seen a single-donor parkland contribution of this scale in nearly ninety years.

The lake will be publicly accessible for the first time once the Phase III trail construction completes. For Southeast Dallas residents, that means a 110-acre lake and surrounding green space that was previously off-limits becomes a neighborhood amenity. The trail connection from the Lawnview DART Station means transit-accessible recreation is part of the design from the beginning.

The Trinity Forest Spine Trail, when complete across all phases, will run 50 miles and link White Rock Lake to the Trinity River Audubon Center, two of Dallas's most significant natural assets. The Audubon Center sits within the Great Trinity Forest, one of the largest urban hardwood bottomland forests in the United States. A paved, accessible trail spine running through that corridor creates a recreational and ecological experience that most major American cities would struggle to match.

Southeast Dallas Gets Its Corridor

Trail infrastructure investment in Dallas has historically concentrated along White Rock Lake's perimeter, the Katy Trail in Uptown, and the Veloweb network in the northern half of the city. Southeast Dallas, where the Trinity Forest Spine Trail is routed, has had fewer miles of maintained trail per resident and more limited access to connected outdoor corridors.

Phase III changes that arithmetic. The trail segment connecting Lawnview DART Station to the existing trail at Samuell Boulevard gives Southeast Dallas residents a transit-to-trail connection, a practical amenity for people who commute by rail and want outdoor access without a car. The broader spine connection from White Rock Lake to the Audubon Center creates a continuous multi-mile outdoor experience available to residents across a wide swath of the city.

The Loop Dallas and city planning documents describe the South Phase as transformative precisely because of this connectivity function. A trail that ends in the middle of nowhere is a short walk. A trail that connects to DART, links to an existing network, and terminates at a significant natural destination is a genuine outdoor infrastructure asset.

What Comes Next

With the construction award approved in May 2026, the timeline moves to procurement, contractor mobilization, and active construction. The full 50-mile Trinity Forest Spine Trail will take additional phases and funding cycles to complete, but Phase III represents the segment that was hardest to close and most consequential for the Southeast Dallas portions of the trail network.

Parkdale Lake's public opening will follow construction completion. The combination of lake access, trailhead connectivity, and transit proximity makes this segment the most layered addition to Dallas's outdoor network in recent memory. Learn more about the Trinity Forest Spine Trail and follow Phase III construction updates at The Loop Dallas trail project page.