Next steps on the path

HDR Engineering's Mike Oakly brought Pine Haven's council up to date on the progress of the pedestrian path through the south part of town at last week's workshop.

"In the feasibility study, we took the town's existing plan for future pathway projects and got it to about a 30% design," he said.

After completing the study, Oakley reported, "WYDOT liked the way everything was progressing and the town has now received the newer grant to do the design of it."

Following the advice of the state, HDR is planning to have three or four segments of the entire project designed before seeking funding to better facilitate construction grants in the future.

The first segment going into design will be south from Town Hall to Paradice Foods and west along Pendleton Drive. "That will probably be a two-grant funding cycle to get that all completed," according to Oakley, which leads into the next two-three years.

The engineer explained that they are planning to build a six-inch thick walkway, allowing for small equipment like skid steers to plow and otherwise maintain the path.

At the last update, there was some concern expressed regarding the number of private easements the public path might traverse, but after more consideration by HDR, almost no part of the pathway runs within private property and the need to pursue private agreements has been greatly alleviated.

However, the construction of this walkway may necessitate temporary ingress of said rights of way and drainage and slope may also be adjusted accordingly on private land, as needed.

With everything brought up to date, Oakly told the council, "We're getting this project set up in our system so we can start [design] this week. The town will not seek funding for construction this year under the advice of WYDOT."