FAYETTEVILLE — A $75,000 grant announced last week will help pay for a new section of the paved trail at Lake Fayetteville.
The money is part of an estimated $275,000 project to add about a half-mile of pedestrian path on the northwest side of the lake. Runners, walkers and bicyclists for years have had to share Lake Fayetteville Road with motorists.
Web Watch
Section Map
Go to the online version of this story at nwaonline.com to see the new section of trail planned at Lake Fayetteville
“Mixing foot traffic, bicycle traffic and vehicles on a narrow road is not a good idea,” Dave Bowman, volunteer coordinator for the city’s Trail Trekkers program, said Wednesday.
The new section of trail will run along the south side of the street from the dam on the west side of the lake, past the marina and around a parking lot where a playground and disc golf course are located. Matt Mihalevich, trails coordinator, said he expects construction to begin in late 2014 and take about four months.
The new section will complete a 5.5-mile paved loop around the lake separated from streets.
“That’s what’s so nice about this last piece,” Mihalevich said. “Things have worked OK, but we’re seeing a lot of increased use out there.”
City Transportation crews finished a roughly 1-mile section on the lake's south side earlier this year.
The north side of the trail is part of the Razorback Regional Greenway, a 36-mile trail to connect south Fayetteville to north Bentonville and is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
The greenway will head down South Powell Street in Springdale to Lake Fayetteville. It will then wind west and south to the spillway bridge before connecting with the planned Clear Creek Trail, which will run under College Avenue and north of the Northwest Arkansas Mall before tying into the Mud Creek Trail.
At A Glance
Recreational Trails Program
Fayetteville was one of 30 cities in Arkansas this year to share about $1.5 million through the Federal Highway Administration’s Recreational Trails Program. The program provides money to develop and maintain recreational trails and related facilities. According to Matt Mihalevich, city trails coordinator, the city has received $456,381 through the program.
Source: City Of Fayetteville, Arkansas Highway And Transportation Department, Federal Highway Administration
The new section of the Lake Fayetteville Trail will add to nearly 4 1/2 miles of trail being built in Fayetteville this year — the most in the city’s history, according to Mihalevich.
Mihalevich said construction on a half-mile addition to the Frisco Trail, from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Walker Park, will likely begin in July. Work ha begun on the Tsa La Gi Trail, which will run south of MLK, from the extended Frisco Trail to Hollywood Avenue.
City staff is almost done negotiating with property owners for right-of-way associated with the Town Branch Trail, a roughly half-mile path from South School Avenue to Greathouse Park.
Once those projects are complete, Fayetteville will have more than 26 miles of trail, Mihalevich said. The city’s Alternative Transportation and Trails plan calls for nearly 100 miles in the next 30 years.