New Road Leads To Prairie Lights In Grand Prairie
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GRAND PRAIRIE (CBS11) - Grand Prairie leaders knew as soon as Joe Pool Lake water levels started to rise over Thanksgiving weekend it would have a struggle trying to keep the two-mile trail of lights in Lynn Creek Park open.
"It wasn't ever a consideration that, well, we'll just close and we'll do it next year," said the Community Events Organizer Beverly Grogan.
But recent storms had cast a dark cloud over the Prairie Lights future. Flood waters shut down the Prairie Lights and the city needed a miracle to reopen it.
"It did need a miracle because when we looked at the flood waters over this weekend we were all very concerned about the tradition that the Prairie lights have become for everybody," Grogan said.
With saving a holiday tradition as motivation, the city found a way around the problem. Construction crews raced to build a new road bypassing the floods, moving as many lights as they could to line the route. Workers from around the city were called into action.
"The elves that are on all the displays jumped down and got into the act!" Grogan laughed. "We have a lot of crews that just redirected and reallocated their work schedules for this event."
Grand Prairie had mulled the idea of an emergency access road here for a couple of years. But this road went from idea to nearly finished in just a couple of days.
The new road means visitors can still see more than 75-percent of the lights.
"We have 4 million lights when we are up and running," Grogan said. "So just a portion of the park leaves us an amazing Christmas display for all of us to enjoy.
"It truly is the miracle in Grand Prairie, the miracle on Lake Ridge Parkway," she said.
Admission will be discounted by 25% and the trail is expected to open Thursday night at 6 pm.
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