First Section Paved !!!, Trial hits the Nightly News!

IT'S PAVED !!!

Just 3 weeks after starting, the first section of trail is paved!  The northernmost part of the trail from the Wittenbach/Wege Center past to the high school was paved today (Section 5 & 6) along with the southern portion of the Alden Nash West section (Section 4).  Word is tomorrow, the northern portion of the Wege easement along Alden Nash (Section 3) will be made black as well.

Grading began today on the widening of the existing walkway on Gee Drive from Foreman to Creekside park. (Section 1) When complete, this will be a 10 ft. wide concrete sidewalk that will connect to the existing Safe Routes to School trail.  Initial grading will begin on the remainder of Section 1 in front of Metric Manufacturing and Cherry Creek Elementary,  and formally connecting to the Fred Meijer Flat River Valley Rail Trail.

First in Trail News !!!

WZZM included the LARA trail in a nice news story on their 6 p.m. broadcast tonight about the economic impact trails are having in West Michigan.  They have also mentioned the project in their My Town section of their web page.  (Thanks Chris !!!)

Gee Drive Widening

Last night, my wife and I walked from the Nature Center to the Wege House and back and saw young cross country runners taking advantage of the gravel based trail...Sign of good things to come!

Gravel & Rain

New Gravel Base

This week saw the completion of the gravel placed on the High School, Alden Nash West, and Wege North Easement areas.  It really looks like a trail and in fact, some brave souls are already riding their bikes on these portions!   They still have work to do on the Alden Nash West section to reduce the steepness of the grade, so don't be alarmed if you walk up that way.

The section in front of Cherry Creek Elementary was staked and approved by the school reps so rough grading should begin there soon.

Grading at H.S. North Section

Behind the scenes, we are reviewing materials for the boardwalks and retaining walls to be built in the coming weeks.

Wege North Gravel Base

Rain has slowed down work a bit this week although everything seemed to hold up just fine in our most recent monsoon.   Next week is calling for great weather so we are looking forward to lots of progress!

School's Out, Trail's Going In !

Gravel Base Section 4

This morning, the first bit of gravel base was being placed on Section 4 of the trail (Alden Nash West to football Parking lot).   At 7:30 a.m. there was a train of trucks ready to drop off material.  This is the base that the asphalt will eventually be placed on.

Wittenbach/Wege Center Neighors

If you wander up to the north end of the high school, you can see the path has been cut from the tennis court parking lot to Vergennes, across the road and to the Wittenbach/Wege Nature Center.  The locals were awake and clucking their approval again this morning.

The concrete was poured for the boardwalk abutments, with the forms already removed on the Wege wetland portion.  I tried to get a few photos, the the Red Wing Blackbirds were not too happy with my early morning intrusion so I backed off.    Based on the amount of tracks I saw, the local deer population is already heavily using the trail!

Vergennes Crossing

Wege House

The path in front of the Wege house has been cleared as well, so you can finally get a good idea of what it will look like. THey will be placing gravel all along the north portion of the Wege easement to day as well.

If you are in a hiking mood, feel free to wander along the those areas that have been cleared this weekend.  It will give you a unique insight as to how these things are built and will give you a good reference point for the progress.  It really is exciting to finally see the trail coming to life!
Go HERE for the slide show if you can't make it out.

Trail Clearing Continues to Alden Nash West, High School and Beyond

Boardwalk Abutment at Gee &Alden Nash

The past couple of days has been productive with the crews continuing with preliminary clearing on the Wege Easement and Alden Nash West.  We met on site with the Alden Nash West representative on Monday to agree on a slight (couple feet) adjustment to avoid having to trim some existing trees (thanks Steve!).

Clearing @ Wittenbach/Wege Center

On Tuesday, concrete work began on the abutments to the boardwalks on the Wege easement and at Alden Nash and Gee Drive.  Weather pending, the pours should be complete today.Clearing work also began this morning south of the High School parking lot and at the Wittenbach/Wege Nature Center.  The Contractors were introduced to the critters who loudly voiced their approval of the trail and the prospect of more friends headed their way soon! Take A Hike !

At Football Lot looking South

We also met in the field this morning with a school rep to confirm that the trail will not be in conflict with the practice fields next to the tennis courts on the north end of the High School.

End of Week 1 - Mosquitos, Birds and Rain

Wege Easement North of House

Today marks the end of the first week of construction activities on the trail.  Yesterday and today the crews continued work on the Wege easement, cutting tall grasses, trimming trees and bushes and setting final stakes in preparation for grading.  You will find "offest" stakes all along the Wege property.  Some folks were wondering why the trail was closer to their house than advertised, but these offset stakes are typically 3' or 4' from the final edge of the trail.

No problems were encountered this first week, except several attacks by mosquitoes and very aggressive red wing black birds!  The birds really don't care for use stomping around the wetland area and dive bomb the crews at every chance they get!   

One woman's thoughts...

Heavy rain early today forced the crews home, but work will continue early Monday.  Preliminary grading (removal of topsoil and roots, etc) should continue on the Wege easement, north of the house.  They are also scheduled to install the concrete abutments for the boardwalks on Alden Nash and the Wege Easement starting Monday the 13th.

First Shovel in the Ground

Wege Easement South

This morning at 7:28 a.m., the first official shovel of dirt was moved for the LARA Phase 1 trail project in the Wege Easement north of Foreman.  Within about an hour, all of the stumps left by our earlier clearing effort were up out of the ground and the air smelled like fresh tilled topsoil.  They plan to bring in a big rototiller to loosen up the soil within the path alignment and then begin grading.  It already looks like a trail!

Stump Removal 101

Yesterday was fairly quiet, just layouts and equipment and sign set up.  The auger pile installation that was originally scheduled for today is being put off for a couple of weeks according to the supplier.  The boardwalks aren't scheduled until early August, so no delay expected as a result.

It is supposed to be 91 today and I think it was about 80 when they started.  Current crew comprised of three semi retired construction veterans who have installed much of the roads and infrastructure in West Michigan over the past 50 years.  We walked them through the south Wege property and reminded them again to "stay between the lines".

The afternoon wrapped up with mowing of the tall grass on top of the berm on the north end of the Wege easement in preparation for stakes and grading.

Construction Begins!

After months and years of waiting, the Lowell Area Trailway Phase 1 project officially started today!  While not a very dramatic beginning, it was the star none the less.  Day 1 saw the removal of the few trees we had scheduled for the project.  The most attention was on Foreman at the beginning of Section 3 (Wege easement), where the larger trees we couldn't get to were removed.  They also removed two trees on Alden Nash.

The surveyors were also out at the boardwalk sections providing stakes for the auger piles.

The real action starts on Wednesday this week when the auger pile installation for the boardwalks is scheduled to begin.   Also, the grading of the southern portion of the Wege easement (where we cleared trees) is scheduled to begin.  To make sure that the contractor knows where not to go, we put up a string line with flags along this entire route showing the east side of the easement.  We just want to make sure it is very clear that we don't want them wandering around outside of the easement.

We also had a nice visit on site with the representatives from the Wege Foundation who got thier feet wet (literally) on the trail.   Despite a hefty mosquito population, we walked the entire route from the house to the parking area so she now has a better idea of where we are going.