Why Bachman Lake's Upgrades Keep Arriving One Piece at a Time

Who actually builds a trail at Bachman Lake? From Midway Hollow, the lake is a short trip north across Northwest Highway, and in 2026 it has changed in ways you can see from the trail. A wider path now runs over the dam. A landscaped bike and walking trail now reaches the lake along Lemmon Avenue. New sidewalk is going in on the north side of Northwest Highway. Each of those came from a different agency with a different budget, and almost none of them started out as a park project.

That explains both the progress and the gaps. In an August 8, 2026 editorial, the Dallas Morning News pointed out that White Rock Lake has had about a dozen comprehensive plans since 1936, while Bachman Lake has never had one. Everything new on the loop this year came along with someone else's mission.

The Water Utility Fixed a Dam and Widened a Trail

The largest project was never about recreation at first. Bachman Lake Dam was built in 1901 to hold back a water supply reservoir. The city no longer draws water from it, but Dallas Water Utilities still owns the structure. The $45 million rehabilitation of the dam and spillway had its ribbon cutting on March 31, 2026, according to a release from Stantec, the engineering firm that led the detailed design.

Two things came with the engineering work that people on the loop will notice. Crews dredged the lake to clear sediment and deepen the water for rowing and fishing. Stantec also designed a wider, ADA-accessible trail over the dam to give visitors a safer path across it. The City of Dallas announced that the new trail section on the dam would open to the public right after the ceremony.

Smaller fixes were already underway nearby. The Dallas Morning News editorial reported that the Bachman Lake Park Loop Trail closed near the recreation center and along Denton Drive in summer 2025 for improvements. By summer 2026, smooth new sidewalk led up to the embankment across from DART's operations facility.

An Airport Budget Built the Path From Lemmon Avenue

The second big change came from Dallas Love Field. Its Lemmon Avenue Streetscape Enhancements project covers Lemmon Avenue from Mockingbird Lane to Shorecrest Drive, plus Shorecrest Drive from Lemmon to the Webb Chapel Extension. Love Field's project page lists sidewalks, bicycle paths, landscaping, lighting, safer intersections, wayfinding and pocket parks. The Dallas Morning News reported that the city's aviation construction fund paid for the work.

The work began in 2020 and took six years. Along the way crews planted more than 200 trees, fully renovated Midway Manor Park and its basketball court, and added trail connections so nearby neighborhoods can walk or bike to Bachman Lake Park. The last piece was an aircraft observation area at the end of George Coker Circle, off Lemmon Avenue. The city scheduled a Lemmon Avenue Streetscape Celebration for April 25, 2026. The Love Field page for the overlook says visitors can watch up to 650 aircraft take off and land each day.

The project came out of Love Field's most recent airport master plan update, and the path to Bachman Lake came along as part of it. It gives people south of Northwest Highway a landscaped way to reach the water on foot or by bike.

The Trailhead QuikTrip Promised in 2018

The third project shows what happens when a park upgrade depends on a private company's schedule. In 2018 the Dallas City Council approved a deal that gave QuikTrip a patch of unused city land at Lemmon Avenue and Northwest Highway. In return, QuikTrip promised to rebuild that stretch of trail. City meeting records describe the approved plan as parking with driveway access, lighting, a public trail connection to the Bachman Lake Hike and Bike Trail, a pavilion, signage, seating, landscaping and irrigation, People Newspapers reported in July.

In that same July report, a QuikTrip spokesperson said the company was still committed and expected construction to start "in the near term." According to the Dallas Morning News, Ryan Moore, president of Friends of Bachman Lake, said QuikTrip once hoped to finish before the World Cup. That deadline passed, and Moore stayed hopeful. "Surely it can't be much longer," he told the paper.

The Friends of Bachman Lake September newsletter reported that ground was finally moving at the corner of Marsh Lane/Lemmon Avenue and Northwest Highway. That work is for the QuikTrip station itself. The newsletter said QuikTrip had promised to build and pay for new landscaping and a trailhead connecting Northwest Highway to the Bachman Lake Trail, but it did not report work on the trailhead.

The same newsletter covered a smaller change a short walk west. A new sidewalk is going in on the north side of Northwest Highway, next to the empty field in Love Field's runway protection zone near Sam's Club. The Friends group first asked for those sidewalks about seven years ago at a meeting at Bachman Lake Library. They said they don't know whether Aviation, TxDOT or the City of Dallas is paying for it. The crosswalks requested at that meeting have been funded but not yet built.

Who Is Behind Each Piece

Here is each project, who is leading it and where it stands in mid-October 2026:

Only the last row looks at the lake as a whole. The rest started with a utility's dam-safety work, an airport streetscape, a land deal and a regional trail connection.

The Lake's First Plan, 125 Years After the Dam

The county study points to where the lake could go next. The Friends' June newsletter reported that Dallas County chose IEA Inc., a civil and structural engineering firm, to study connecting the Bachman Lake Trail to the Campion Trail in Irving. The study will look at bridge crossings, community access, transit connections and parking. The Dallas Morning News reported that county officials expect the study to take about two years and compare five routes.

The master plan is what could link these pieces. In 2023, Friends of Bachman Lake told the Park Board why Bachman deserved one. In August 2026, Moore told the Dallas Morning News that the city was finalizing its contract with a design firm that month. The lake has existed since the dam went up in 1901, and this would be the first time anyone draws the dam trail, the Lemmon Avenue path, the Northwest Highway corner and the greenbelt on one map.

The Friends have already said what they want for the greenbelt. "Ultimately what we hope to see over on the Bachman Creek greenbelt side is a transformation of this space (into) a fully designed Texas native arboretum," Moore told People Newspapers.

The Greenbelt Is Open to Walk Now

Some of that is already walkable. Moore told People Newspapers that in 2021 the Friends group, working with other nonprofits and outdoor restoration groups, cut the first mile of nature trail through the Bachman Creek Greenbelt. That was the first time anyone could really get around inside it. The volunteers keep clearing dense privet to make the trails easier to use. One donor wrote in the September newsletter that they had "recently discovered this trail through the woods in my own backyard" and now walk it every morning with binoculars and a camera.

Three things coming up this fall connect to that work:

1. The Texan by Nature video. In August, the Friends filmed a walk through the greenbelt with Texan by Nature's Conservation Wranglers program. UNT interns, their professor Jaime Baxter-Slye and two Dallas-chapter Texas Master Naturalists joined them. The group planned to share the finished video after its late-October release.
2. The fourth-Wednesday meet and greet. The Friends usually meet at 5 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of the month at On Rotation Brewery & Kitchen, 7707 Lemmon Ave., Suite 200. In October that falls on the 28th. The group notes that dates and times can change.
3. The mailing list. The Friends' newsletter has carried news on events, cleanups and the trailhead, and you can sign up for it on the Friends of Bachman Lake site.

At Modern Living Group, we follow changes like these around Midway Hollow because they affect how people live there every day. If you'd like to talk about how the trail work and the coming master plan connect to life near the lake, Let's Start a Conversation.