In 2018, the Dallas City Council traded a patch of unused land at Northwest Highway and Marsh Lane to QuikTrip. In return, the company agreed to rebuild that end of the Bachman Lake trail with a trailhead, lights under the bridge and security cameras. In August 2026, the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board wrote that this stretch was still waiting on that promise.
The ground there is moving now. In its September 2026 newsletter, Friends of Bachman Lake reported that site work had started for the QT at the corner of Marsh Lane/Lemmon Avenue and Northwest Highway. That puts the Midway Hollow side last in line for the lake's 2026 upgrades. The other edges already have their new entrances, and they were finished first.
Two new entrances, both finished by spring
The first opened on the Love Field side. The City's Lemmon Avenue Streetscape Enhancements project covers Lemmon Avenue from Mockingbird Lane to Shorecrest Drive, plus Shorecrest from Lemmon to the Webb Chapel Extension. Love Field's description lists more than 200 trees, plus sidewalks, bike paths, lighting, safety upgrades and small neighborhood pocket parks. The Dallas Morning News reported that the city's aviation construction fund paid for it.
The trail part, which most people now call the Lemmon Avenue Trail, runs about 1.7 miles from Shorecrest and Webb Chapel by the lake down to Lemmon at University Boulevard, by North Texas Trails' measurement. The crossings at Shorecrest give trail users a safer way onto the Bachman Lake loop. The City marked the project's completion on April 25, 2026. The same morning, CandysDirt covered the ribbon-cutting for the Aircraft Observation Area at the end of George Coker Circle, off Lemmon. Dallas Love Field says the spot gives close views of an airfield with up to 650 takeoffs and landings a day.
The second entrance is the dam. The City held a ribbon-cutting for the rebuilt Bachman Lake dam and spillway on March 31, 2026, and opened the new trail section over the dam right after the ceremony. The dam dates to 1901. Before the rebuild, the path across it was narrow, and the stretch heading toward Denton Drive was steep and uneven, according to CandysDirt's coverage of the ribbon-cutting. It's now a winding, accessible route with new shade trees planted along it.
"They really and truly listened to the community."
Susanna Brown, treasurer of Friends of Bachman Lake, speaking to CandysDirt about the dam trail
According to the same article, Brown said the shade trees were a deliberate choice. Before work started, community members and City staff walked the park together to plan how to keep the loop open and to deal with the heat that builds up there, partly because Love Field is so close.
Some of the work under the trail is hard to see from the path. Stantec, the engineering firm on the project, says the old concrete weir was replaced with a labyrinth spillway and the 1,800-foot earthen embankment was armored. Dredging removed 154,441 cubic yards of sediment and 3,125 tons of debris. In its 2026 release, the firm said the deeper water supports recreation, including rowing and fishing.
The Northwest Highway edge, where the work is happening now
Northwest Highway is Midway Hollow's northern edge and the lake's busiest frontage, and this fall it has three separate projects in different stages.
- A new sidewalk on the north side of Northwest Highway. Friends of Bachman Lake reported crews pouring it near the empty field in Love Field's runway protection zone, next to the Sam's Club. The group asked for sidewalks and more crosswalks at a meeting with City, state and county officials at Bachman Lake Library about seven years ago. It doesn't know whether the sidewalk is being paid for by the Aviation department, TxDOT or the City.
- Crosswalks that are funded but not built. In the same September newsletter, the group says the crosswalks it requested have been funded and are still waiting on construction.
- The QuikTrip trailhead. Under the land deal, QT is responsible for building and paying for new landscaping and a trailhead connecting Northwest Highway to the Bachman Lake Trail. The Friends describe the current approach there as difficult to navigate. The renderings show a Dallas Park and Recreation sign for Bachman Lake Park at the corner, with the trailhead behind it.
The trailhead is a plan for now. It was promised in 2018. In August, the Dallas Morning News described no visible progress at the site, and by mid-September the Friends were reporting site work on the station. Neither source gives a completion date. The Friends have also said they might have pushed for something different at that corner if the deal hadn't been made before the group formed, and that they'll "take any improvements we can get in the meantime."
Why this corner matters more than its size suggests
Both of the finished entrances feed into the loop itself, while the Northwest Highway stretch also points away from the lake. The Dallas Morning News describes this end of the lake, from Lemmon Avenue along Northwest Highway toward the Webb Chapel bridge, as the place where a dirt trail heads off toward the Bachman Creek Greenbelt. That makes it the link between the paved loop and the wooded creek corridor that Friends of Bachman Lake has spent the past few years restoring.
The bigger regional plans run through the same area. According to the Friends' October 2026 newsletter, Dallas County selected IEA Inc., a civil and structural engineering firm, to study a connection between the Bachman Lake Trail and Irving's Campion Trail. County officials told the Dallas Morning News the study would take about two years and look at five possible routes. The same newsletter says a connection would open a route from the Lemmon Avenue trail, through the Bachman Lake Trail, to the Campion Trail.
Irving's side has moved first. The Friends report that Campion Trail Unification Phase 1B, a 1.8-mile stretch along the Elm Fork of the Trinity River and Frazier Dam, is now complete, and that it connects Irving's trail to Dallas's system. According to the newsletter, the final connector hasn't started, it is targeted for late 2027, and the full 22-mile system is targeted for the end of 2028. Those are target dates, and the route from Bachman to the Campion Trail is one the county study hasn't picked yet.
There is also the matter of a plan. The Dallas Morning News pointed out that White Rock Lake has had about a dozen comprehensive plans since 1936, and Bachman Lake has never had one. Ryan Moore, president of Friends of Bachman Lake, told the paper in August that the City was finalizing a contract with a design firm that month. The editorial board called the master plan something for the lake's ongoing projects to "tether" around. The sidewalk, the trailhead and any link to the west will all be built through the Northwest Highway corridor.
What this edge already offers this fall
The Greenbelt doesn't need to wait for a trailhead. Earlier this year, CandysDirt reported that you could see the trails again after the Bachman Greenbelt's invasive privet was cleared. Friends of Bachman Lake was also one of six groups statewide chosen for Texan by Nature's 2026 Conservation Wrangler program. In its October newsletter, the group points out that birds and monarch butterflies migrate through this time of year. It has started a Greenbelt project on the iNaturalist app and is asking visitors to log what they spot.
The group also holds a meet-and-greet at On Rotation Brewery & Kitchen, 7707 Lemmon Ave., Suite 200, every fourth Wednesday at 5 p.m. The October gathering fell on October 28. If the schedule holds, the next one is November 25, the day before Thanksgiving.
If you already walk the Northaven Trail, the lake is the other trail close to Midway Hollow. As of this fall, the entrance closest to home is the stretch of Northwest Highway between Lemmon Avenue and the Webb Chapel bridge.
Here at Hunter Realty Group, we pay attention to changes like a new sidewalk on Northwest Highway or a trailhead at the end of the block, because they shape everyday life in a neighborhood long before they show up anywhere else. If you'd like to talk about how projects like the Bachman Lake upgrades fit into your plans for Midway Hollow, let's get a coffee.
