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Austin City Council approved up to $5.9 million to finish a three-mile section of the North Walnut Creek Trail project which has sat idle for the past year-and-a-half.

Ted Siff began working on a master plan of trails that included Walnut Creek in the early 1990s.

“That vision is for a trail that's longer than the Barton Creek Trail. It's almost 20 miles long,” Siff said.

Voters approved bonds for the project in 1998, and crews finally broke ground on the first phase of the project 11 years later. The contractor only finished five percent of the job before being fired by the city for unsatisfactory work.

"There will remain gaps in the trail that will need to be closed with future property acquisition, design and ultimate construction,” Marty Stump with Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Project managers say Thursday’s decision is a major step in finishing the trail.

"This trail will be used by a tremendous number of folks and really used as both a recreation trail and for alternative transportation, a bicycle and pedestrian route for folks,” Stump said. “It has been on the drawing board for a long, long time."

Construction is scheduled to start again next month. Officials expect to have the first phase complete by February of next year.