If you have ventured up to the rims and taken a look at the progress on the Skyline Trail, you may have seen a few features like piles of white rocks in the borrow ditch and concrete rectangles attatched to the trail.
There are piles of rocks next to the trail, between the trail and the highway. What are they used for?
Those are dams for drainage. They control water during construction by slowing down the flow in the borrow ditch which runs the length of the trail. After construction they will be removed.
Will there be landscaping on the trail there?
There will be erosion control
blankets, and then seeding of native grasses as soon as construction is complete and the weather is more hospitable to growing seedlings; likely in October.
What will the parking situation be?
There will be three designated parking lots with angled parking and one truck turnout along the trail. The photo to the right is the truck turnout.
What is the purpose of the added portions of concrete next to the trail?
There will be a series of informational signs, some shade structures, a bike repair stand and benches along the trail. These will serve as the bases for those amentities which will be added once the trail construction is complete.
Will the trail be right next to the highway the whole time?
The engineer has made every effort to get trail users as far away from the highway as possible where there is room to do so. This will make a quieter, more natural experience.
However, there are places along the highway where the private land and topography do not allow for much separation.
There will also be:
- solar lights at the parking lots
- signs to show there is a parking lot ahead
- a shade structure at a new MET bus stop
- improvements to the trail from Zimmerman Park to the trail at the underpass to the Skyline Trail
- and a paved parking lot at Zimmerman Park!