GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — Larry Dragon, director of the Lower Valley Trails Group (LoVa), is happy with the progress of the first part of the South Canyon Trail. Work on the 650-foot section of recreation path is approaching completion only three months after breaking ground.

“It’s such a compelling project to get a path through South Canyon because there is no route through there other than Interstate 70,” Dragon said.

Ground breaking for the initial section of trail, extending from the west of the Audi dealership in West Glenwood Springs and around the West Glenwood Springs Sanitation District’s south side near the Colorado River, occurred on Feb. 5, after about nine years of planning Dragon said.

Completion of this section is scheduled to happen around June 1, according to Dragon, but it still requires a section of bridge that spans Mitchell Creek that will connect the South Canyon Trial with the paths in Glenwood. A call to the city of Glenwood Springs on the status of the bridge project Thursday afternoon wasn’t returned by press time. The bridge is a project of the city of Glenwood Springs, according to Dragon.

But getting close to completing the initial phase is a step in the right direction for Dragon.

“We started with the hardest part,” he said. “The rest of the trail shouldn’t be this difficult but we had so much to deal with just to get this section going.”

Several obstacles contributed to the expensive construction cost and difficulty of this first section, including construction of a 14-foot concrete retaining wall extending 235-feet to support the trail above the Colorado River.

This first section is just the beginning of phase one of the LoVa trial, which will extend 12-miles from West Glenwood to New Castle, at an estimated cost of $42 million. Dragon hopes to continue work on that section as soon as possible, as long as LoVa can find the funding to keep the work going.

“We are considering doing another small segment of the trail in the next year or two,” Dragon said. “It’s possible we could be going next year. We are considering the viability of doing the rest of the trail in little segments like this that would cost between $500,000 and $2 million per section.”

Dragon said that LoVa has already been approved for another grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation for the next section, and he hopes to reconnect with Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) in 2010 for additional funding at that time.

Already, about $630,000 has been put into the 650-foot section with Garfield County supplying $430,000, the city of Glenwood Springs contributing $250,000, the Colorado Department of Transportation pitched in $150,000, and LoVa received another $153,000 from the Colorado State Parks State Trails Grants Program, according to Dragon.

Overall plans call for the LoVa trail to extend 47-miles from West Glenwood to the Mesa County line with a rough estimated construction cost of $93 million.

“We are making great progress,” Dragon said. “But it won’t get built in a day.”

Contact John Gardner: 384-9114
jgardner@postindependent.com


Post Independent, Glenwood Springs, Colorado