Bike trail whole again after fire
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, July 27, 2007
Four months after a massive railroad trestle fire closed a stretch of the American River Parkway, a section of bike trail reopened Thursday.
Union Pacific won raves for how quickly it replaced the bridge near Cal Expo. Repairing the half-mile section of bike trail has been another matter. Bicycle commuters and pedestrians have been forced to take a detour since the March 15 fire.
"It has been quite a while that trail users have been inconvenienced. We're just glad that it's finally completed," said Dave Lydick, deputy director of the county parks department.
He acknowledged the fix took a bit longer than some had hoped. While rules were waived to speed the track reconstruction, fire cleanup and trail repaving required permits and authorization from several state agencies, Lydick said.
Additionally, 14,000 cubic yards of soil with fire debris needed to be removed and replaced with clean soil, he said.
Lydick said there is some work still to be done -- the de-composed granite shoulders still need to be added -- but with the paving done, there was no reason to keep the trail closed.
-- Ed Fletcher
