A new pedestrian bridge spanning Faulkey Gully officially opened to the public Monday, giving northwest Harris County residents a fresh link between neighborhoods and miles of walking and biking trails that had been separated by an unfinished dirt path for decades. Constable Mark Herman's office, Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey, and community members gathered for the bridge dedication at Faulkey Gully MUD to mark the milestone.
According to Mark Herman, Harris County Constable Precinct 4, the new trail bridge creates more opportunities for residents to walk, bike, explore, and enjoy the community, while also providing greater access to other trails along the bayous. Precinct 4 has invested in projects that connect neighborhoods and enhance outdoor recreation for families, the constable's office said in the post marking the dedication.
A Contract Years in the Making
The bridge is the centerpiece of a larger $4,715,210 construction contract that Harris County Commissioners Court awarded to Times Construction, Inc. in December 2025, covering a 10-foot-wide asphalt trail, a 12-foot-wide concrete undercrossing, and the pedestrian bridge itself, according to the Harris County Board of Commissioners. That contract, which came after an initial low bidder withdrew, also set a 25.92% minority and women-owned business participation goal for the project.
Faulkey Gully Municipal Utility District contributed $1.6 million toward the $4.7 million total, with Harris County Precinct 3 covering the remaining balance, per Community Impact. The joint funding arrangement, the outlet notes, allows local utility districts to co-invest alongside the county in regional parks and trail infrastructure rather than shouldering costs alone.
Closing a Three-Decade Gap
The broader project converts roughly 1.5 miles of dirt path on the north bank of Faulkey Gully, between Guernsey Drive and Spring Cypress Road, into a paved asphalt hike-and-bike trail, the same outlet reports. That stretch had long stood as an unfinished link in a trail system that dates back much further than most residents realize.
Initial work on the Faulkey Gully Hike and Bike Trail began in the 1990s, when local utility districts funded a 1.9-mile paved section running from Lakewood Forest Drive to Guernsey Road, according to Faulkey Gully Municipal Utility District. What was meant to be Phase III of that trail stalled for decades because of property access issues, and only recently were property rights secured and agreements refreshed with Harris County to allow construction to move forward.
Plugging Into a Wider Trail Network
The new segment connects directly to an existing multi-use trail network built by Northwest Harris County MUD No. 5, which spans more than 5 miles across 10 residential subdivisions in the Cypress Creek area, according to a trails study from Clark Condon cited by the same outlet. That network was completed in 2022 to improve pedestrian connectivity around the area's detention basins and drainage corridors, effectively meaning the new bridge stitches together suburban neighborhoods that previously had no continuous route between them.
To help pay for local amenities like the trail, Faulkey Gully MUD created a voluntary $5 monthly beautification fee on resident water bills in late 2021, per the utility district's own account, with residents free to opt out of the fee at any time.
Part of a $758 Million Regional Vision
The Faulkey Gully expansion is one piece of the Harris County Precinct 3 Parks and Trails Master Plan, introduced in August 2023, which lays out $758 million in long-term park and trail recommendations across north Harris County, according to reporting citing Wolff Companies. That plan covers 69 existing parks, four proposed new regional parks, and 225 miles of proposed new trails.
Demographic forecasts built into that master plan project the population in the Cypress service area will grow by 131% by 2045, a surge officials say is driving demand for expanded greenway connectivity. Planners have pointed to a standard-of-care deficit in suburban outdoor facilities relative to national norms as that growth accelerates, underscoring why county and MUD officials are racing to add trail capacity now rather than later.
What's Left to Build
Even with the bridge now open, construction on the full 1.5-mile trail segment and its accompanying underpass at North Eldridge Parkway is not expected to reach full completion until the first quarter of 2027, Community Impact reports. That underpass will eventually let trail users bypass heavy vehicular traffic on North Eldridge Parkway entirely.
The Faulkey Gully project also isn't the only regional trail effort moving forward this year. In August 2026, Harris County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a $1.33 million interlocal agreement between Precinct 3 and the Houston Parks Board to design a separate 3.5-mile trail connecting the Cypress Creek Greenway to the Spring Creek Greenway, linking Cypress Creek Park at Timber Lane to Pundt Park with funding split evenly between county bonds and private matching funds.
