Walkability improvements in Energy Corridor - North segment of Enclave Pkwy gets sidwalk

Walkability & Bikability get boost with sidewalk construction projects nearing completion on Enclave Parkway in Houston's Energy Corridor

  

Following completion of a sidewalk construction project in the mostly residential segment of Enclave Parkway South of Briar Forest Drive last year (2011), work is now continuing this summer on infrastructure improvement to facilitate walking and biking in the section from Briar Forest North to Eldridge Parkway, which is lined by large commercial office properties (not only energy companies), but also by acres of still undeveloped land with a nice stand of trees, giving the corporate presence a park-like feel.

The new paved (poured concrete) sidewalk will complete the connection to the Terry Hershey Hike & Bike system at the KBR office property near the Eldridge Parkway bridge over Buffalo Bayou. 

There is already a separate pedestrian/bike bridge on the East side of the two-span Buffalo Bayou bridge for motor vehicle traffic. A restroom facility with running water and hand dryer serves strollers, hikers, and bikers at an unmarked building North of the trail. It also features a drinking fountain outside. On the other side of Eldridge there is an open-air “runner’s shower”, although no one seems to ever use it. The doggie drinking fountain, by contrast, is much more popular.

Here are a few pics from the road work near 1200 Enclave Parkway, a large commercial office building, most of which was recently leased by Schlumberger, a company that already had a corporate presence nearby -- albeit not Class A like this one -- on Dairy Ashford Drive.

Sidewalk extension work under way near corporate park with fountain
(and lots of ducks) in the northern segment of Enclave Parkway
between Parkway Plaza Drive and intersection with Eldridge Parkway

A pair of ducks chattering at the existing sidewalk near the fountain

Corporate Park with lake and fountain on Enclave Parkway

The ducks are already quite accustomed to passers-by and line up to greet them
(more likely expecting to be fed)

Schlumberger's new address on Enclave Parkway - one of the large-company corporate tenants
with long-terms lease for lots of square footage of top-notch office space in this bucolic part of West Houston. No cattle anywhere to be seen, though, not to mention longhorns (but you can drive up North a few miles and gaze at some real Texas longhorn cattle at the Houston Farm & Ranch at Abercrombie Drive off  Patterson Road inside Addicks Reservoir if you are lucky)

Texas Longhorn in Bear Creek Pioneers Park
Houston Farm & Ranch / County Agricultural Extension Office