485 replies to this topic

[Mith242]

photosynthetica, on 17 May 2011 - 07:41 PM, said:

Hey, found this forum through a string of Google searches looking for trail maps (Google maps will highlight bike trails if you get directions by bike). Signed up to say thanks for the photos and all the info, as I am just getting started with the biking trails around here.

Glad you found us.  Feel free to stop by and join in on any of the topics.  

[Mith242]

A very large tree has fallen over on the Scull Creek Trail around the U of A Agri area.  If you're on foot you might be able to climb over it.  With it being the weekend the city might not take care if it till Monday.

[Mith242]

All the heavy rains the past month or two have put back the schedule for future work.  But now it's going to be put back even more.  All those heavy rains have really caused problems with putting debris in drainage areas all throughout the city.  So much so that the city has more work back up for the usual crew well past the end of the year.  So the city going to have some of the crew that works on the new trails help out to try to catch them back up.  While it's disappointing to hear it's certainly understandable.  Not sure on any exact dates right now.  Sounds like work on the future trail around the U of A agri area might be put back a couple months.

[Mith242]

Looks like they've recently started doing some work on the 'shoulders' of the Mud Creek Trail.  Areas that experienced some erosion from all the flooding rains earlier in the year.  And apparently what I read about the trail work being put off isn't quite true.  First of all the city hasn't made it's decision on whether to take some of the other crews to work on the drainage issues yet.  Even if they do, some of the trail crew will still be working on the U of A farm trail.  But obviously work will progress more slowly with fewer people there.  But apparently work has already started on that future trail.  Still no word on what that future trail will be called.  For some reason sounds like they aren't going to decide a name for it till construction is mostly done.  In most cases seems like names were already decided well before that point on the other trails.

[Mith242]

I recently had some wisdom teeth removed so I haven't been hitting some areas of the Fayetteville Trail system much lately.  But today I noticed it looks like they've gotten up posts for lighting on the newest section of the Frisco Trail.  I keep forgetting to check and see just how much of the Fayetteville Trail system has lighting.  I admit I usually hit it during daytime hours and not night.  After this newest section is lit I'm pretty sure the whole Frisco Trail will be lighted.  And I think most of the Scull Creek Trail is lit as well.  I've also noticed the city has been putting in some new trees in the northern parts of the Scull Creek Trail lately.  Taking out some of the trees that have died in that section as well.

[FabianR]

There are tons of trees in the middle of the trail at Lake Atalanta in rogers. i go walking to the park from my house and take the trail as a shortcut but i had to go the long way because there is like no way around the trees.

[Mith242]

FabianR, on 27 June 2011 - 10:56 PM, said:

There are tons of trees in the middle of the trail at Lake Atalanta in rogers. i go walking to the park from my house and take the trail as a shortcut but i had to go the long way because there is like no way around the trees.

I'm not too familiar with that trail.  Is that a paved trail or a nature/dirt trail?

[FabianR]

Mith242, on 28 June 2011 - 02:33 PM, said:

I'm not too familiar with that trail.  Is that a paved trail or a nature/dirt trail?

its a nature trail. not that many people know about it and i pretty much never see anybody using it but it is pretty cool. you go all the way to the end of east poplar st. in downtown rogers and then you will see the entrance.

[Mith242]

Looks like Fayetteville has been doing some work on the Mud Creek Trail.  Putting in gravel and concrete on some of those edges of the trail that was damaged from those big rains we had back in the Spring.  (Isn't that a distant memory now)  Looks like they're also putting another bench in near the eastern end of the Mud Creek Trail as well.  Also put up an informational sign about riparian areas on the Mud Creek Trail near the spur you take to head up to the Lake Fayetteville Trail.  I noticed it looks like they cleaned the southern half of the Fulbright Expressway tunnel.  Which is a bit odd, because it's the northern half of the tunnel that's gotten to be very muddy.  Hopefully someone is going to go back and eventually do the northern half of the tunnel.

[Mith242]

Recently got a little more info out of Matt Mihalevich, the Fayetteville Trails Coordinator.  Work is ahead of schedule with the future U of A farm trail.  But there are delays with permits to the highway dept on the tunnel under Garland Ave.  The city still hasn't gone through the process of giving that trail an official name.  But a couple of names have popped up, Meadow Valley Trail and Meadowlark Trail.  The Meadow Valley name comes from an old schoolhouse that used to be located on the Agri Park.  It was originally built in the 1800's at the intersection of Mt. Comfort and Deane Soloman.  Right now they're hoping that trail will be completed in early 2012.  Recently there had been a little press on another future trail for the Fayetteville Trail system, the Town Branch Creek Trail in south Fayetteville.  The city recently got a $270,000 federal grant for the trail.  In 2013 they're hoping to start on it and work on the 2.3 mile section between Razorback Rd over to City Lake Rd.  I included a map of the trail and other future sections of trail for that part of the city.

[Mith242]

Just wanted to say how impressed I am in with how Fayetteville does upkeep on the trail system.  Had some pretty heavy rains last night from the storms.  And of course when that happens and you have quite a bit of trails next to creeks you end up with lots of rocks, silt and debris on the trails.  But the city had already gone out earlier today and had it all cleared off.  So there's lots of nice clean trails out there today.  There's been other time when trees have fallen over onto the trails over the weekend and the city has gotten people out there pretty quickly to clear it.  Just really nice to see them get on things so quickly.

[aerotive]

Mith242, on 19 September 2011 - 03:57 PM, said:

Just wanted to say how impressed I am in with how Fayetteville does upkeep on the trail system.  Had some pretty heavy rains last night from the storms.  And of course when that happens and you have quite a bit of trails next to creeks you end up with lots of rocks, silt and debris on the trails.  But the city had already gone out earlier today and had it all cleared off.  So there's lots of nice clean trails out there today.  There's been other time when trees have fallen over onto the trails over the weekend and the city has gotten people out there pretty quickly to clear it.  Just really nice to see them get on things so quickly.

They've still done zip to fix the cave in on the Frisco trail...that's been, what, six months now?  What were their excuses again?  If something similar had happened to the least important stretch of the most lightly trafficked street in city it still very likely would've been fixed much faster.  It's embarrassing and makes the community's supposed emphasis on green living look like so much greenwashing.

[Mith242]

aerotive, on 13 October 2011 - 03:40 PM, said:

They've still done zip to fix the cave in on the Frisco trail...that's been, what, six months now?  What were their excuses again?  If something similar had happened to the least important stretch of the most lightly trafficked street in city it still very likely would've been fixed much faster.  It's embarrassing and makes the community's supposed emphasis on green living look like so much greenwashing.

Yeah and I know they're building new sections of trail in the meantime.  The problem is that money was already appropriated for these other uses.  But once those grants and funding is issued you can't go back and re designate their use.  So the city can't take away funding on the future trail over by the U of A agri for example to make repairs to the Frisco Trail.  With some road construction plans having been pushed back I would imagine that section of the Frisco Trail won't be fixed till 2012 at the soonest.  Complicating matters is that this isn't going to be an easy fix.  Which of course means it's going to be expensive to fix.  One good thing is that the voters passed extending the city sales tax earlier this week.  While I would imagine there are other needs at the top of the list.  But one of the things mentioned when the city was trying to sway voters to extend the sales tax was money from the sales tax could be used for the trail system.  Of course you also know some people will throw a fit when the city does fix that small section of trail and people find out how much it costs.  Some people are going to want to see that money put towards other road projects not the trail system.  But yeah I know it's frustrating that, that section of trail is still sitting there the way it was since Spring.  I think another factor that may have played into all of this, is that the trail there is still usable.  Granted it's down to one lane although it isn't great to look at either.  Guess I'm just a bit more forgiving on this particular issue.  It hasn't been too big of a hassle for me to wait for that one lane section.

[zman9810]

Mith242, on 05 August 2011 - 04:09 PM, said:

Recently got a little more info out of Matt Mihalevich, the Fayetteville Trails Coordinator.  Work is ahead of schedule with the future U of A farm trail.  But there are delays with permits to the highway dept on the tunnel under Garland Ave.  The city still hasn't gone through the process of giving that trail an official name.  But a couple of names have popped up, Meadow Valley Trail and Meadowlark Trail.  The Meadow Valley name comes from an old schoolhouse that used to be located on the Agri Park.  It was originally built in the 1800's at the intersection of Mt. Comfort and Deane Soloman.  Right now they're hoping that trail will be completed in early 2012.  Recently there had been a little press on another future trail for the Fayetteville Trail system, the Town Branch Creek Trail in south Fayetteville.  The city recently got a $270,000 federal grant for the trail.  In 2013 they're hoping to start on it and work on the 2.3 mile section between Razorback Rd over to City Lake Rd.  I included a map of the trail and other future sections of trail for that part of the city.

I am so glad to see that they are building a tunnel under Garland. It will make that trail and street so much safer and user friendly for all. Hopefully this plan will be used on all major street crossings that aren't at a traffic light controlled intersection.  I still hate the Old Missouri Road crossing- it is much more dangerous than it should be.

[Mith242]

Thought I'd post some updates on the Fayetteville Trail system.  First of all on the repair on the section of the Frisco Trail damaged from the flooding back in the Spring.  Part of the long drawn out process is because FEMA is involved.  They have agreed to pay to repair it.  But then another problem has come up.  FEMA will only pay for a certain amount and it looks like it's going to cost more than that to fix it.  So the city is once again trying to see if there's a way to minimize costs and get the whole thing going.  Matt Mihalevich, the Fayetteville Trails Coordinator, says he's hoping to have bids out on it in the next month or so.
The schedule on the 'U of A Farm Trail' (nothing official but looks like this trail might be officially named the Meadow Valley Trail) has been pushed back because it took longer to have the tunnel put in under Garland Ave.  It's timetable has been pushed back to Spring of 2012.  After that then the city will move up to Lake Fayetteville and finish that last one mile section of trail on the south side of the lake.  That's expected to be complete by Summer of 2012 then the city will move to the Town Branch Trail from Razorback Road east to City Lake Road on the south side of town.

[Mith242]

For quite a while Springdale has certainly been last in the trail area of the major NWA cities.  But looks like they're taking the Razorback Greenway pretty seriously.  Springdale is putting in restrooms at Shiloh Square for the greenway.  Apparently some Springdale officials weren't happy with the amount of money being put into it, over $250k.  But Mayor Sprouse wanted the city to put it's best foot forward on the project.  Not wanting it to reflect badly on Springdale and also wanting ti build something worthwhile now and not have to totally revamp it ten years later.  I can't find all the details, but I believe I've heard they're even going to use some solar and wind power to help power the restrooms.

[zman9810]

Mith242, on 02 February 2012 - 05:30 PM, said:

For quite a while Springdale has certainly been last in the trail area of the major NWA cities.  But looks like they're taking the Razorback Greenway pretty seriously.  Springdale is putting in restrooms at Shiloh Square for the greenway.  Apparently some Springdale officials weren't happy with the amount of money being put into it, over $250k.  But Mayor Sprouse wanted the city to put it's best foot forward on the project.  Not wanting it to reflect badly on Springdale and also wanting ti build something worthwhile now and not have to totally revamp it ten years later.  I can't find all the details, but I believe I've heard they're even going to use some solar and wind power to help power the restrooms.

Kudos to Mayor Sprouse for his forward thinking. Considering where Shiloh Square is located  building the restrooms to last and be graffiti resistant is a very good idea and should pay off over time. Using alternative energy sources is also a very good idea- I would think there might be some extra grant money for something like that.

Edited by zman9810, 02 February 2012 - 09:50 PM.

[Mith242]

I've been meaning to mention this.  I've lost the article now, but had recently read that Bentonville completed another section of trail.  If I understand correctly this now connects downtown Bentonville over to Rogers part of their trail system.  This will also be part of the Razorback Greenway.  I think Bentonville just has a little to do on their north-side before they'll already have all their sections of the Razorback Greenway in place.

[Mith242]

Not sure if it's been made official but looks like the new trail going neat the U of A Agri area will be called the Meadow Valley Trail.  It had been projected to be completed in the Spring but looks like it's been pushed back till Summer.  I think there were a few delays involving the tunnel.  There also apparently is a delay with one of the property owners in that area.  Looks like the situation will be going to the Arkansas Supreme Court.  Sounds like the retaining wall on the west side of Garland is about complete.  Once that trail is complete work will shift to completing the loop around Lake Fayetteville.  Also sounds like next week bids will go back out again on fixing that section of the Frisco Trail damaged in last Spring's floods.

[Mith242]

Sounds like there's three sections of the Razorback Greenway that are basically shovel ready and should be completed first.  From Lake Fayetteville to Shiloh Square in downtown Springdale.  Silent Grove Rd, which I believe is in northwest Springdale, to the Lowell trailhead.  Then in southern Rogers from Garrett Rd to Pleasant Grove Rd.  They're breaking the trail up into sections so if there's a problem it doesn't delay the whole thing.