New hours:
Monday – Friday: 7AM to 6PM
Saturday & Sunday: 8AM to 2PM

Although you may not have notice it, there’s a great local business a few feet from the White Rock Creek Trail near Greenville Avenue. Cafe Silva is a cozy coffee house that serves delicious espresso drinks, home-made pastries, and sandwiches. It is located at the intersection of Royal Lane and Greenville Avenue, about a mile east of US 75. If you’re on the trail, you reach it by taking the side path near the soccer fields at Northwood Park. The entrance faces Royal Lane.

In addition to great food and drinks, the cafe has a great view from its large floor to ceiling windows that overlooks the trail, Royal Oaks golf course and Northwood Park. You can sit and watch people passing by while you sip!

The cafe is owned and operated by Masoom Khan and his wife Suraiya, who does the baking, and is named after their daughter. They opened the cafe in 2010 after moving to Dallas from New York.

At Cafe Silva, the coffee beans are roasted locally and ground fresh throughout the day to ensure the coffee is always rich, fresh, and delicious. The coffee menu varies with the season and availability but the house favorites are blends from Indonesia and Brazil.

The “Bites” food menu changes daily and contains a variety of baked treats including homemade muffins, scones, banana bread and mini cakes. Hot lunch items also vary, but include turkey apple (this one is delicious, trust us!), roast beef and spinach, or nutella and banana panini.

Cafe Silva is a great place to stop as you’re passing by, or as a destination for you next trip on the trail. They recently extended their hours and are now also open on Sundays, which makes it even more convenient for trail users.

Owner, barista, and chef Masoom Khan serves up espresso, homemade pastries and sandwiches.

The elevated view from the cozy cafe overlooks the WRC trail, Northwood Park and Royal Oaks golf course.

“Here’s a 4D look at construction of the LBJ Express project over the White Rock Hike and Bike Trail near Hillcrest and LBJ. The width of the overpass almost doubles with the addition of elevated bypass lanes, general purpose lanes on the outside and managed lanes in each direction in the center. Construction on the lanes over the trail is expected to begin spring of 2013.”

“The (elevated) bypass lanes will reduce the amount of traffic at the frontage roads as it will allow for grade separated movement past the (trail) stops signs on both north and south sides of LBJ.”

While the bond package (unfortunately) does not include funds for sorely needed reconstruction of the middle and southern sections of the White Rock Creek Trail, it does include funding for a section of the Lake Highlands Trail that will connect to the White Rock Creek Trail through the Oncor easement, just north of Walnut Hill Lane (here’s a map). From there, it will run through the Oncor easement to Skillman St.

The bond program will also provide funding for many worthy trail projects in Dallas, including extending the Northaven Trail further west to Midway Road. Please remember to vote!

The construction crew also repaved the side trail that leads from the WRCT to the office building parking lot east of the 75 access road. The 75 access road sidewalk-Central underpass sidewalk route to Northaven Road is open again.

Construction, of what looks like the last section of this project, is now taking place west of 75 along the back of the Office Depot/Asian Mint shopping center. A temporary trail has been constructed, so this section is still completely rideable. Based on how quickly construction has been completed so far, this section might be completed next week.

The newly completed intersection of the White Rock Creek and Cottonwood trails. Nice, wide, and smooth!

The side path leading to the 75 access road sidewalk and Northaven Road has been re-paved. This is a popular way to get from North Dallas to the trail.

Construction continues on the west side of 75 behind the Office Depot shopping center, but a temporary trail is in place. This section is passable.

October 30, 6:30 pm
Jewish Community Center – Zale Auditorium
7900 Northaven Road
Dallas, TX 75230

Open House: 6:30p.m. -7:00p.m.
Presentation/Q & A: 7:00p.m. -7:45p.m.
Open House: 7:45p.m. -8:30p.m.

If you have any questions you can contact:
Jonathan Toffer, E.I.T.
Senior Transportation Planner
Dallas County Public Works
411 Elm Street, 4th Floor
Dallas, Texas 75202
214.653.6417

The trail is closed from US75 (Central Expressway) to the Cottonwood Creek Trail until October 10th. We checked yesterday and this section of trail is truly impassable as they are jackhammering up the old trail and hauling it away. Access to the Cottonwood Trail is still open, so you can route your trip that way.

Re: Additional Closure of White Rock Creek Trail from Cottonwood Creek Trail connection & US-75

We completed 1000 feet of trail from Forest Lane south behind the restaurants within 1 week. The Contractor has requested to close off another section of trail between the Cottonwood Creek Trail connection & US-75. The working space is very limited in this section & he can have the work done within 10 to 14 days weather permitting. This will allow us to complete an additional 1400 feet of trail. With the addition of this work, we will have removed & replaced 2400 feet of trail within 3 weeks. This amounts to almost two thirds of the trail and construction within the most challenging areas.

I have agreed & he will be putting together signage to identify the sections to be barricaded.

The trail from Anderson Bonner Park crossing under Forest Lane to the west side of US-75 will be open. Trail users will have to turn around at US-75. This is an inconvenience, but after this almost two thirds of the trail and construction within the most challenging areas will be complete. We will then proceed with installation of the temporary trail as needed & completion of the remainder of the project.

These signs are posted at several spots along the north end of the trail, including at the junction with the Cottonwood Trail.

The project to reconstruct the section of the White Rock Creek Trail between Forest Lane and the Cottonwood Trail junction has begun. The erosion fencing has already been installed.

The initial phase of construction will require closure of the trail on the south side of Forest Lane next week. Here’s a description of what’s involved from Richard Stauffer of the Park and Recreation Department that was forwarded by Park Board Member Lee Kleinman.

“We are beginning the reconstruction of the White Rock Creek Trail from Forest Lane to the Cottonwood Creek Connection & will be closing down the trail between Forest Lane & US-75. This action will allow us to complete the removal & replacement of 1000’ of trail in the most confined section of the work zone behind some of the businesses along Forest Lane. Once this is complete we will install the temporary trail for the remainder of the distance & keep the trail open for the duration of the project.

Closing of this section for a week should not create much of a hardship since the trail is closed at I-635 & Park Central. TXDOT has already installed signs on the trail directing people to utilize the Cottonwood Creek Trail.

Today signs informing trail users of the closure (see attached photo) were installed at both parking lots in Anderson Bonner Park & at the Cottonwood Creek Trail connection. On the 22nd Barricades with flashing lights & 3 – “Trail Closed Ahead” signs at 100’ intervals preceding the barricades will be installed on the trail north of Forest Lane & on the east side of US-75.

We are predicting a week to perform the work, but will open up the trail as soon as possible.”

Southbound riders emerging from the new underpass. See the pickup?

We’ve heard how delighted trail users are with the new section of the White Rock Creek Trail under Northwest Highway at West Lawther drive. Although not officially open (see photos), neither the contractor nor TxDOT have (so far) been inclined to force people off of it.

Coming from the north, this is the first Trail Closed sign to negotiate.

This sign is closer to the construction.

Trail closed sign approaching from the south.

We think this is great, especially for weekend use! Allowing early access to the underpass is much safer than continuing to use the NW Hwy/DART station detour, which has been the bane of trail users for the last two years. However, this situation could change and it is important that trail users don’t jeopardize this largess.

It is obvious that there is still much construction work that needs to be done. There are workers and heavy machinery along (and sometimes on) the trail. Please be extremely cautious when riding or walking through this area and be courteous to the workers. If everyone plays nice, the contractor and TxDOT may let us continue to use the new trail.

There is still a lot of construction work that needs to be completed.

We also need to point out that the stoplight at West Lawther and NW Highway is now working.  So an alternative to the underpass is to use the sidewalk on the east side of West Lawther to cross NW Highway. Nice new paths lead from this sidewalk back to the trail.

We feel strongly that the top priority should be rebuilding the badly damaged section of the Whiterock Creek Trail north from West Lawther Drive to Skillman Street. What good will it do to have new connecting trails (designed to only serve individual neighborhoods) when the main trail (which servers thousands a day) is in poor condition? And… the White Rock Creek Trail will get even more traffic when the beautiful new plazas, trails, and underpasses at Northwest Highway open in the next month.

Please contact Council member Allen right away and urge him to make rebuilding the White Rock Creek trail the top priority. His email address is: jerry.allen@dallascityhall.com.  Or better yet, attend his upcoming town hall budget meeting tomorrow evening and speak out in support of the trail.

Council Member Jerry Allen’s Town Hall Budget Meeting
6:30 PM, August 14, 2012
Lake Highlands Recreation Center
9940 White Rock Trail, Dallas

The complete list of scheduled Town Hall meetings is available here:

http://dallascityhall.com/Budget/pdf/TownHall_meetings_Schedule.pdf