McAllen is building three pedestrian tunnels — here’s where they’ll go

McAllen is planning three pedestrian tunnels across some of its busiest corridors, starting with a $4.5 million project beneath Ware Road that will connect the McAllen Convention Center complex to Westside Park.

The city expects to begin construction on its first tunnel in August and complete it by the end of 2027. 

The design uses a box culvert — a concrete drainage structure that can double as a tunnel for pedestrians and wildlife — to enable visitors and residents to move more freely across otherwise busy roadways without interacting with traffic. 

Project renderings have not been released.

A drainage canal already runs near the site of the first tunnel, just north of Houston Avenue, feeding directly into Westside Park. From there, visitors can continue onto a trail system that loops around a resaca within the McAllen Nature Center.

“We want to do what we can to support the use of our recreation offerings,” McAllen City Manager Isaac J. Tawil said in a recent podcast interview with the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal. 

The connection will make it easier for visitors staying at the five hotels within the convention center district to access the city’s green spaces. Each year, the convention center hosts more than 500 events and attracts more than 400,000 visitors. The facility has already secured major future bookings, including the Texas Democratic Party state convention in 2030.

City leaders, however, expect the connection to also spur new development. 

“I anticipate more hotels across the street — more retail,” Tawil said. 

The second tunnel is expected to connect the new Lorena Ochoa Signature Golf Course, which is being co-designed by the Mexican former LPGA tour player, with the Champion Lakes Golf Course. It would also run underneath Ware Road, about a mile south of the convention center tunnel, where the McAllen Disc Golf Park is located. That green space has been fiercely protected by residents who have repeatedly opposed development at the site.

The third tunnel project will help connect the McAllen and Edinburg hike-and-bike trail system. 

McAllen has two north-south trail corridors — one along 2nd Street, also known as Col. Rowe Boulevard, and another along Bicentennial Boulevard extending to Wisconsin Road in north McAllen. A new 1.5-mile east-west extension between Jackson Road and 2nd Street was completed in 2025 at a cost of $2.6 million.

The city has also begun widening its lateral drainage system in neighborhoods near the trail network.

The third pedestrian tunnel, which would cross North 10th Street, is expected to be completed as part of that drainage project.