FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Public Private Partnership Revitalizes Trail

HOUSTON, TEXAS  — This year Kirksey celebrated our 28th year of planting trees in honor of our clients. On December 6th our firm gathered and planted 300 trees along the Columbia Tap Trail. Over the years, our firm has planted more than 9,300 trees throughout the Houston area, proving that our commitment to sustainability and the local community is more than just rhetoric.

The Columbia Tap, originally known as the Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway, opened in 1856 and became part of Union Pacific Railroad’s network. Eventually the railroad fell into disuse but thanks to federal and local funding, a four-mile section from Dixie Drive to Dowling Street was converted into a rail-trail in 2009. The 10-foot-wide concrete trail cuts through Houston’s Third Ward, encouraging residents to hike, bike, and walk through the city.

The Columbia Tap Trail provides a critical bicycle link between Houston’s Central Business District from the Dynamo Stadium southwardly to TSU and the Texas Medical Center. Over a ten-year period, Mack Fowler and the late Bill Coates were instrumental in sponsoring the purchase of the land from the railroad and the construction of the four-mile long multipurpose trail.  During construction, the trail was diverted to public roads for four blocks and did not continuously connect.

In 2013 a coalition led by Alan Atkinson privately constructed this missing link to complete the Columbia Tap Bikeway trail. Without its keystone, an arch will not function in the way intended. Tree planting by Kirksey within this keystone of the Columbia Tap Trail will not only provide shade and visual beauty to the school children regularly commuting to area elementary and middle schools and the adjacent Debakey High School for Medical Professions, but also demonstrate the extraordinary results achieved when private citizens collaborate with government officials to beautiful Houston. 


For more information please contact:
Alan J. Atkinson
832 428 1141
alanatkinson@pdq.net

Reference
Rails to Trails Conservancy
http://www.railstotrails.org/trailblog/2012/january/01/columbia-tap-rail-trail-texas/

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