For residents of Lake Highlands and Lakewood, the two-year wait is almost over. The much-missed intersection at Northwest Highway and Lawther Drive—along with the White Rock Trail—will reopen by Aug. 31, reestablishing the connection severed due to the reconstruction of Northwest Highway.

Lawther Drive will once again offer the badly-missed Lake Highlands shortcut to Mockingbird Lane and White Rock Lake, TxDOT officials said Wednesday. And, the White Rock Trail—once used by more than 5,000 people a day—will be rerouted beneath Northwest Highway, vastly improving safety for cyclists, joggers and walkers who previously had to cross four lanes of traffic at a crosswalk.

The intersection of Northwest Highway and Lawther Drive has been closed since July 2010 as part of the one-mile, $32 million reconstruction of Northwest Highway, which was built as an elevated roadway in both directions over White Rock Creek. Upstream development had caused the creek to regularly overflow its banks and force the closing of the intersection and Northwest Highway due to flooding. The new roadway is six to eight feet above the ground.

White Rock Trail users have been forced to take an often congested and dangerous detour across Northwest Highway, using the light at the White Rock DART station.