New Maumelle path already getting use

Cyclists, walkers on not-yet-done trail

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Bicyclists and walkers have begun using Maumelle's new bike/pedestrian pathway alongside Maumelle Boulevard, even though there is still work to be completed, Mayor Mike Watson said Wednesday.

The pathway is part of the Arkansas River Trail System that has grown into an 88.5-mile "Grand Loop" that extends from downtown Little Rock through Maumelle to Conway.

The city used a federal grant, plus $163,000 in city funds, to build the pathway along Maumelle Boulevard, also known as Arkansas 100, between Arnold Palmer Drive and the Hampton Inn just off Crystal Hill Road to connect with an existing pathway.

Yellow striping to create lanes on the Maumelle trail and crosswalk markings at Riverland Drive were completed this week. More railings are to be placed on the Maumelle Boulevard side of the trail for added safety, Watson said. All work should be finished by early next month, he added.

"We'll have a hard time keeping people off of it," Watson said, noting that barrels had blocked off the path until striping was done. "We'll put some more railing between the pathway and the roadway where there is less than 5 feet between there and the travel lanes on Maumelle Boulevard."

The striping was done "hopefully to keep people on the correct side of a lane and also to give bicyclists a lane to pass if they're coming up on walkers," Watson said.

A low-bid construction contract for the $493,711 project was awarded to Melchor Construction of Russellville just more than a year ago and work began about a month later.

The project was scheduled to take four to six months, but ran into delays with work involving the relocation of above-ground electrical boxes, utility vaults and fiber-optic cable poles, as well as winter weather.

Metro on 06/21/2014