If you've hit orange fencing or an unfamiliar gate on the Seymour Lieberman Trail this summer, you probably filed it under "the Memorial Groves thing" and kept running. That's only half right. Memorial Park is currently dealing with two disruptions that happen to overlap in time but have nothing to do with each other, one of them permanent and one of them gone in three weeks. Confuse the two and you'll either abandon a running route you don't actually need to give up, or assume a construction fence will vanish on a schedule it won't.
The permanent one: Memorial Groves is moving your trail, not closing it
Memorial Park Conservancy broke ground on Memorial Groves on March 11, 2026, just under five months ago as of this writing. The project reshapes 100 acres along West Memorial Loop Drive, the narrow stretch of park between the road and the Union Pacific rail line, into a memorial to the roughly 70,000 soldiers who trained there at Camp Logan between 1917 and 1919. Nearly 3,000 bald cypress trees will go in on a grid meant to evoke soldiers standing in formation, alongside a Camp Logan Playground built around WWI-inspired features like oversized helmets and army crates, and a new visitor center at the park's north entrance designed by Moody Nolan with Nelson Byrd Woltz.
None of that explains your Wednesday morning run. What does: about 3,600 feet, roughly 0.7 miles, of the Seymour Lieberman Trail is being shifted farther from West Memorial Loop Drive to make room for the new plantings. MPC president Chris Ballard has said the loop's total distance holds at three miles even with the shift, which matters if you clock your mileage by that number. Nearly 10,000 people use the SLT on an average day, per the Conservancy, so a permanent reroute on a quarter of the loop is not a small thing to a lot of regulars. Separately, and for a lot longer, the western portion of the Outer Loop Trail is closed entirely until 2027. That's a different trail than the SLT, and it isn't shifting. It's shut for the length of construction.
How the price tag grew, and what the extra money actually bought
When Memorial Groves was first unveiled in April 2025, the project carried a $42 million estimate, funded in part by the Kinder Foundation's $10 million, John L. Nau III's $7.5 million, and the Brown Foundation's $7.5 million. By January 2026, the Conservancy announced a $7.5 million gift from the Jerold B. Katz Foundation, which pushed the total project cost to $50.5 million. That later round of funding is what unlocked the specifics on the Camp Logan Playground and the visitor center, the pieces of the project that show up in renderings. The trail work, the SLT shift and the OLT closure, was part of the original scope from the start. If you're trying to guess when construction disruption ends versus when new amenities open, the trail changes are already locked in regardless of future fundraising, while the playground and visitor center timeline can still move with it.
The temporary one: a bike race series nobody put on your calendar
The other disruption has nothing to do with Memorial Groves. Memorial Park's Criterium Races run Wednesday evenings from July 8 through August 26, 2026, and on those evenings the entire Picnic Loop is reserved for racing. Parking lots in that section close to the public at 2:30 p.m. on race Wednesdays, hours earlier than the park's standard nightly closure of 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. As of this writing, three Wednesdays remain on the calendar: August 12, 19, and 26. After that, the Picnic Loop and its parking return to normal with nothing lingering from the race series itself.
If you've parked at the Running Complex or Picnic Loop lot for an evening run and found the gate closed earlier than expected, that's the race series, not the Groves construction. It ends in three weeks regardless of what's happening a quarter mile away in the tree plantings.
Two closures, two clocks
| Memorial Groves reroute | Criterium Race closures | |
|---|---|---|
| What's affected | ~0.7 mi of the SLT, plus the OLT's western portion | Picnic Loop and its parking |
| Cause | Construction on the 100-acre Memorial Groves project | Wednesday evening bike races, July 8 to Aug 26 |
| Duration | SLT shift is permanent; OLT closed until 2027 | Ends after Aug 26, 2026 |
| What to do | Expect the SLT's 3-mile total to hold on a shifted line; plan an alternate route if you rely on the OLT | Arrive before 2:30 p.m. on Wednesdays through Aug 26, or pick another evening |
Why the coverage missed this
Most of what's been written about Memorial Groves covers the finished result: the cypress plantings, the WWI-era playground, the visitor center renderings. That's the version worth getting excited about, and it isn't open yet. Construction is targeted to wrap in late 2027. What's less covered is the operational reality for someone running the SLT four mornings a week right now, which is that a small, real piece of the route has already moved, and a completely unrelated event schedule is closing a different part of the park on a completely different timeline. Treat them as one story and you'll either give up on a route you don't need to give up on, or expect a race-day closure to still be there in September when it won't be.
What's still just maintenance, not construction
Not everything happening in the park right now is tied to either closure. Memorial Park Conservancy's July 2026 conservation update mentioned a new piece of mowing equipment, informally called a Turf Beetle, now used on higher-traffic lawns like Vale Asche and Clay Family Eastern Glades to pull cut grass off the turf after mowing. The same update covered routine weeding and mulching at the Eastern Glades parking lot, along the SLT, and behind the Running Trails Center. None of it closes anything. That's simple upkeep running alongside the bigger project, and it's easy to lump it in with construction if you're only glancing at the fencing as you drive past.
Quick reference for the next few weeks
If you're planning a run, a walk, or a Saturday with the kids at Eastern Glades between now and Labor Day:
- The SLT is still three miles and still open, just shifted along one stretch near West Memorial Loop Drive.
- The Outer Loop Trail's western half is out until 2027. Build a different habit around that one rather than waiting it out.
- If you're headed to the Picnic Loop on a Wednesday evening through August 26, get there before 2:30 p.m. or choose a different night. After that Wednesday, the race series is done until next season's schedule is set.
Jennifer Delaney lives and works in these same neighborhoods, close enough to notice when a trail sign changes or a parking lot closes early. If Memorial Park's changes have you thinking more about what it's actually like to live near it, not just visit it, Jennifer Delaney is always glad to talk through the neighborhood. Let's connect, find your next home or investment.
