The Land Bridge at Phil Hardberger Park will connect the two sides of the 330-acre park over Wurzbach Parkway, providing pedestrian, bicycle and wildlife mobility across a structure that is 150 feet wide and 189 feet long. The Land Bridge will extend the natural beauty of the park so that people crossing it will have the experience of climbing over a hill, unable to see the traffic below.
A group of 30 children from around San Antonio who participate in the park’s many nature programs led the groundbreaking and were joined by leaders from the Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy and the City of San Antonio including Phil Hardberger, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, Councilman Manny Pelaez, Councilman John Courage and City Manager Sheryl Sculley.
The ceremony was part of Tree-Centennial Fest, an official San Antonio Tricentennial event at Phil Hardberger Park that included more than a dozen different activities and demonstrations, food trucks, games and more. San Antonio Parks and Recreation gave away 300 one-gallon trees in honor of the occasion.
On September 6, the San Antonio City Council approved an ordinance authorizing SpawGlass Civil Construction Inc. to begin work on the Land Bridge. Funding for the bridge comes from the San Antonio 2017 Bond Program and from the Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy, which secured individual donations, corporate gifts and foundation grants. The fundraising effort was completed in 2018 thanks to a $1.5 million gift from The Tobin Endowment. In recognition of the gift, the bridge will be named the Robert L.B. Tobin Land Bridge.