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Razorback Greenway and other NWA Trail Systems


Mith242

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Work has begun under Appleby on the Scull Creek trail. Looks like they'll be putting up a low wall as well. The Scull Creek trail also ran under Van Asche but there was no direct access to the road from the trail. But it looks like the city is now working on that as well. I saw a bulldozer that was clearing out a path so that people on the trail can access Van Asche like they can other streets where the trail goes underneath the road.

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Work has begun under Appleby on the Scull Creek trail. Looks like they'll be putting up a low wall as well. The Scull Creek trail also ran under Van Asche but there was no direct access to the road from the trail. But it looks like the city is now working on that as well. I saw a bulldozer that was clearing out a path so that people on the trail can access Van Asche like they can other streets where the trail goes underneath the road.

I noticed that Appleby work earlier this week while walking. They had one of those rubber tracked machines taking the brush out and then the bulldozer moved in. It was a very tight fit for the bulldozer- I kept waiting for a mistake to be made and major structural damage be done to the bridge but the operator kept it straight. I asked one of the workers if they planned on raising the level of the trail tunnel but he just said that they were cleaning out the other tunnels. I guess the work to raise the level of the trail tunnel will be done by another crew.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The newly improved Scull Creek Trail is now complete under Appleby St. They were opening it up while I rode my bike through earlier this afternoon. Also looks like they will be putting down asphalt or concrete soon for the Van Asche connection. Also noticed they had some flashing lights installed but not quite working yet on the intersection of the Scull Creek trail and North St. Now that work on the Scull Creek trail is winding down they are beginning to move in heavy equipment to fix the section of the Mudd Creek trail. I haven't heard but I'm guessing they will have the trail closed down for that section behind the P&G offices.

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Got some more info from Matt Mihalevich, the Trails Coordinator for Fayetteville. I've got some info for scheduled projects for this Springs and Summer. A number of them I've already mentioned. One I haven't is extending the Shiloh Trail in northwest Fayetteville to Truckers Dr. I believe this is over near Sam's. I've mentioned connecting the two sections of the Frisco Trail between Maple and Spring St. I've got a map showing the details.

fayfriscotrailsegment20.jpg

That is scheduled for this summer. Another summer project scheduled is the Town Branch Creek Trail. The section to be work on will start at School Ave and extend west over to Greathouse Park in the southern part of the city. Another summer project scheduled is extending the Scull Creek Trail north to Johnson Bridge in Johnson. Although with much of that being in Johnson the city of Fayetteville can't control the timetable of that project. One more summer project scheduled is the Clabber Creek trail from Rupple Rd east to Salem and Holcomb School. Apparently it's going to be a boardwalk design. I'll post some more maps and the rest of the year's schedule at a later date.

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here's a couple more maps showing the extension of the Mudd creek Trail to the east. The first shows details of the initial phase of extending it past Old Missouri Rd to Sweetbriar. The second shows later phases to be worked on later this year to extend it to Sweetbriar Park and the down to Gulley Park.

faymuddcreektrailoldmis.jpg

faymuddcreektrailextens.jpg

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Wonder what the concrete "Jersey" barrier is?

I'm surprised the plan calls for narrowing Old Missouri Rd. by 6 feet- that's a very busy street to be doing that to.

I guessing it's like the concrete barrier that's on the Scull Creek Trail on the south side just before you curve down to the Fulbright Tunnel. If I remember correctly Old Missouri is pretty wide around the bridge. So it may not be as bad as it sounds.

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Time for another map. This time it's the Fayetteville Master Trail Plan. Apparently all the purple lines were in the original trail plan but are now being cut out. Either because there are other nearby trails in the vicinity, there just wasn't enough room to put in a trail through a particular area, or there was a particular neighborhood that was particularly anti trail. But as I mentioned before all of this isn't necessarily set in stone. They are still taking suggestions, feel free to leave comments or suggestions at the city's website.

http://www.accessfayetteville.org/governme...nways/index.cfm

fayettevilletrailmaster.jpg

I was reading an article mentioning some of the trails in Bentonville and Rogers. They sound interesting, particularly Bentonville's. Bentonville has also been putting in trails for mountain biking and such. I hope Fayetteville keeps actively pursuing their trail system, because Bentonville is moving up with theirs.

I also forgot to mention earlier, apparently the city of Springdale has approved their trail system. Great to see all the major cities on board with this. Not sure when Springdale will start getting their trails started but I look forward to when we have our cities linked up with this trail system.

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Looks like the old oddly shaped wooden bridge on the Mudd Creek trail was removed today. The new bridge is there but the trail hasn't been paved to the new bridge. Apparently the trail will stay open while construction is going on. But you'll have to go off to the side in the grass/dirt/rocks. The direct access to Van Asche has also been completed as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looks like most of the work on fixing the Mudd Creek Trail near the P&G offices is about complete. All the damaged asphalt has been repaved and the trail has now been paved to the new bridge. The only thing left is a foot section on both sides of the new bridge. I'm guessing they'll be putting concrete down since they didn't pave it with the rest of it. You can also see the beginning stages of work on extending the Lake Fayetteville Trail on the east side of the lake. I guess the city will be moving on to that next rather than extending the Mudd Creek Trail eastward.

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All the work on the repairs to the Mudd Creek Trail and new bridge is complete. I also noticed they've worked on moving Scull Creek to the east shore near Van Asche. I guess they were worried about potential eroding into the trail. Sometime soon the city is supposed to be putting in lighting on the Scull Creek Trail between Popular and North. But lighting between North and Maple will be a while. The city doesn't have enough lights and has to order some more.

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I did get confirmation from our Trails Coordinator, Matt Mihalevich, about what the city will be working on next. It will be the Lake Fayetteville Trail. Sounds like the extension of the Mudd Creek Trail to Sweetbriar is still waiting for all the grant money to become available. Both it and the section of Frisco Trail between Maple and Spring will hopefully start sometime this Fall. The city has also put out a safety video concerning the trail system.

http://accessfayetteville.granicus.com/ASX...le.granicus.com

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've bit my tongue so far about certain issues about the trail system. But I thought just in case some people happen across this topic and don't know how things generally work. Maybe I should mention some things to help inform people. Think of it as a public service announcement. :D I'll try to be polite here and not be too harsh on people, even though some of these incidents have really frustrated me. First of all it's generally expected for people to travel on the right hand side of the trail. Just like you wouldn't decide to one day start driving on the left hand side of the road. In a lot of cases maybe it's not that big of a deal. But I've already had over half a dozen incidents where I've almost run someone over while going around a curve. I do slow down while going around blind curves. But I don't slow down to 2-3 mph just in case someone for some odd reason decides they want to travel on the left hand side either. If you happen to see someone you know or haven't seen in a long time, please get out of the trail while having your conversation. You wouldn't block traffic on a two lane road to talk to someone would you? (Okay I hate to admit it but I've actually had this occur to me a couple of time, where two people in vehicles blocked a road while talking to each other. But still you get the point.) I realize there will be public events on the trails sometimes, races and such. If you happen to be an organizer of some sort of event like this please make it known to everyone that you're going to be using the trail system for your event. The Hogeye people did a very good job putting up notices all over the trail so people would know. The people who organized the event over the 4th of July weekend did not. I nearly plowed into the lead group of runners while going around a curve. With it being a race the runners didn't hold themselves to just the right hand side of the trail. I can understand that, you're trying to win. But it's not a lot of fun to go around a corner and suddenly have people totally covering the whole trail. I didn't see a single notice about this event and didn't see anything on the trail except for a couple of spots after I had already passed a lot of runners. Also if you have some spots where you're handing out water to the runners. After all the runners have gone by don't block the trail for the rest of us trying to us it.

I'm sure just about everyone isn't doing these things on purpose, they probably just never thought about it or it never occurred to them. If any of you offenders happen to come across this please take note. It might help prevent some possible incidents in the future. :)

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I've bit my tongue so far about certain issues about the trail system. But I thought just in case some people happen across this topic and don't know how things generally work. Maybe I should mention some things to help inform people. Think of it as a public service announcement. :D I'll try to be polite here and not be too harsh on people, even though some of these incidents have really frustrated me. First of all it's generally expected for people to travel on the right hand side of the trail. Just like you wouldn't decide to one day start driving on the left hand side of the road. In a lot of cases maybe it's not that big of a deal. But I've already had over half a dozen incidents where I've almost run someone over while going around a curve. I do slow down while going around blind curves. But I don't slow down to 2-3 mph just in case someone for some odd reason decides they want to travel on the left hand side either. If you happen to see someone you know or haven't seen in a long time, please get out of the trail while having your conversation. You wouldn't block traffic on a two lane road to talk to someone would you? (Okay I hate to admit it but I've actually had this occur to me a couple of time, where two people in vehicles blocked a road while talking to each other. But still you get the point.) I realize there will be public events on the trails sometimes, races and such. If you happen to be an organizer of some sort of event like this please make it known to everyone that you're going to be using the trail system for your event. The Hogeye people did a very good job putting up notices all over the trail so people would know. The people who organized the event over the 4th of July weekend did not. I nearly plowed into the lead group of runners while going around a curve. With it being a race the runners didn't hold themselves to just the right hand side of the trail. I can understand that, you're trying to win. But it's not a lot of fun to go around a corner and suddenly have people totally covering the whole trail. I didn't see a single notice about this event and didn't see anything on the trail except for a couple of spots after I had already passed a lot of runners. Also if you have some spots where you're handing out water to the runners. After all the runners have gone by don't block the trail for the rest of us trying to us it.

I'm sure just about everyone isn't doing these things on purpose, they probably just never thought about it or it never occurred to them. If any of you offenders happen to come across this please take note. It might help prevent some possible incidents in the future. :)

I've noticed this myself- I thik it's part not knowing the rules and part that some people think the rules don't apply to them. Often times it's a group out together and want to walk side by side to talk. It's fine to socialize while on the trail but you still need to follow the safety rules and stay to the side single file. I had a case the other day where I met a walker coming towards me on my side and when they saw me moved over. Funny thing though, as soon as they got past me they moved right back over to the wrong side :wacko:

I wouldn't want to see the trails cluttered with signs but this is one rule that needs to be emphasized more so more and bigger signs might be called for. More emphasis about the rule about bikers signalling that they are approaching from the rear is needed also- a simple "left" is all it takes.

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I've noticed this myself- I think it's part not knowing the rules and part that some people think the rules don't apply to them. Often times it's a group out together and want to walk side by side to talk. It's fine to socialize while on the trail but you still need to follow the safety rules and stay to the side single file. I had a case the other day where I met a walker coming towards me on my side and when they saw me moved over. Funny thing though, as soon as they got past me they moved right back over to the wrong side :wacko:

I wouldn't want to see the trails cluttered with signs but this is one rule that needs to be emphasized more so more and bigger signs might be called for. More emphasis about the rule about bikers signaling that they are approaching from the rear is needed also- a simple "left" is all it takes.

Groups of people do seem to pose a problem most of the times. Although I never ran into one woman as I rounded a corner because she was in the left lane for some reason. When I got to the end of the trail and turned around to come back I noticed as I passed her again she was still in the left lane. Even with the fact I almost ran into her about 10 minutes earlier. I guess some people just don't get it. Maybe it comes from the way people are supposed to walk on roads. In that case you are supposed to be on the left hand side so you can actually see the vehicle coming your way. Maybe they're trying to apply those rules to the trails as well. In a lot of cases it's not a big deal. On a straight area you can easily see them. But when you get to curvy parts of the trail, especially on say the Mudd Creek Trail or the Lake Fayetteville Trail. There are some curvy areas that have a lot of vegetation. I do slow down when I come to these areas. But still sometimes you still almost run into people because they're in the wrong lane. Some areas of the trails have a lot of signage. But some of the older sections, like the Mudd Creek Trail and the Lake Fayetteville Trail don't seem to have many. Maybe I need to suggest some more signs for those two trails to our Trails Coordinator.

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There's discussion about having a Trail Watch program using volunteers from the community. The volunteers would receive some training from the city police but would be strictly limited to assiting trail users and calling for police help when needed. Although the trails are very safe there have been incidents and this would be a good way to stop potential problems before they start. Just the fact that troublemakers know someone is watching can have a big deterent effect.

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Just wanted to mention that Bentonville has a new 1.5 mile trail open. I'm not very familiar with Bentonville's trails but this new trail apparently connect the Compton Gardens with the North Bentonville Trail. But anyway now people can use the trail to see the progression of Crystal bridges. I'm going to have to make it up there sometime and check it out.

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Looks like the lights the the North St crossing on the Scull Creek Trail are working now. They've also got the lampposts up between Poplar and Sycamore. You can see where the lights will be going between Sycamore and North.

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I went jogging on the natural biking trails in Bentonville the other day and I must say, they have done well. Very well. I am sad that it is such a long drive from Fayetteville. Do we have something like that here? We have the back side of Mt. Sequoyah but that really isnt anywhere near the same. Around Lake Fayetteville isn't either.

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I went jogging on the natural biking trails in Bentonville the other day and I must say, they have done well. Very well. I am sad that it is such a long drive from Fayetteville. Do we have something like that here? We have the back side of Mt. Sequoyah but that really isnt anywhere near the same. Around Lake Fayetteville isn't either.

I haven't been to any of Bentonville's trails so I can't compare it. I had heard they have some mountain bike trails, I guess those are the only 'nature' type trails I was aware of up there. I had asked the Fayetteville Trails Coordinator about the possibility of doing some type of 'nature trails'. But it sounds like as far as the city is concerned they going to focused on their multi-use trails. Any type of other trail like that would have to be done by volunteers. I've heard people mention something about there being some sort of natural trails over around Mt Kessler in southwest Fayetteville or southwest of the city. But I don't know how well developed it is. The Fayetteville Trails Coordinator, did also mention it would be nice to have some sort of nature trail around Mt Kessler.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Seems like progress has been rather slow the last month. Mind you I'm not complaining at the job being done. I'm sure there are things being done that aren't noticeable. The unfinished lampposts are still there between Poplar and Sycamore. Although I did notice they have started putting up lampposts between Sycamore and North lately. I imagine there's work being done at Lake Fayetteville. I just haven't been able to notice. I imagine extending the Lake Fayetteville Trail will take a while and there won't be much work elsewhere till it starts coming along. I just keep hoping that the city will be able to start on extending the Mudd Creek Trail and connecting the Frisco Trail soon.

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Finally walked the section of trail south of North St. Interesting how the section closest to Maple is also used as some residents' driveways. They've put chain link fences to keep people off the railroad tracks- good idea. I'll be glad when the the small section on south to the reast of the Frisco trail is finsihed. That was one other thing I wasn't aware of- Frisco trail makes up the section on the south end from Maple.

Sw a neat human powered three wheeled vehiclee called a trikke. No pedals - you have to throw yourself around to move it. It's called carving. I spoke with the rider and he seemd very enthused about it. It is a very intense way to get around- he looked in great shape. I think it is a great deal more of a workout than I want to get on the trail.

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Finally walked the section of trail south of North St. Interesting how the section closest to Maple is also used as some residents' driveways. They've put chain link fences to keep people off the railroad tracks- good idea. I'll be glad when the the small section on south to the rest of the Frisco trail is finished. That was one other thing I wasn't aware of- Frisco trail makes up the section on the south end from Maple.

Saw neat human powered three wheeled vehicle called a trikke. No pedals - you have to throw yourself around to move it. It's called carving. I spoke with the rider and he seemed very enthused about it. It is a very intense way to get around- he looked in great shape. I think it is a great deal more of a workout than I want to get on the trail.

Yeah that section of the Frisco Trail is strange. But there just wasn't enough room to squeeze in a trail and still leave some sort of road or driveway for those several homes. For what it's worth I've never had a problem with accessing that section of trail. I'm certainly with you on finishing the trail between Maple and Dickson/Spring St. Sounds like if things go to plan they will start on it sometime this Fall. Not sure how long it will take to complete. I know who you're talking about too. I don't know him by name but I see him on the trail system a lot. Looks like a good way to build up your upper body strength unlike a regular bicycle/tricycle that works your lower body.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got an update from our Trail Coordinator, Matt Mihalevich. Sounds like a lot of the concrete is down on the Lake Fayetteville extension. No asphalt yet because they don't want to damage it with the heavy vehicles. Apparently the bidding for the two bridges on the Lake Fayetteville extension go out next week. I believe one of them will be one of the longest bridges on the Trail System. I believe only the bride over the Lake Fayetteville spillway will be longer. Matt told everyone to keep their fingers crossed for some affordable bids. If the bids come in pretty high not sure if the city might have to put off that trail extension for a while or what would happen. Matt has started design work on the Frisco Trail connection. The work crew will apparently go there after the Lake Fayetteville Trail extension. And on the Mudd Creek Trail extension Matt is still working with property owners for easements. I'm guessing after the Frisco Trail connection work will start over there.

I had read Gov Beebe had given some stimulus funds for converting a railroad bridge to a pedestrian bridge down in Little Rock. I had wondered if our Trail System would be eligible for stimulus funds. But apparently the state decided to spend the money on two new visitor centers on interstates, no idea where. But apparently Matt did pry a little money from the state's hands for some energy efficient trail lighting. I know there are different circumstances but still a little disappointing the state will provide money for helping a pedestrian bridge in Little Rock but not help with our Trail System.

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