How widening the trail

would damage our park

Introduction

Restore the Nine isn’t against bikers or bikes. Restore the Nine is for protecting the natural environment in the park. That means we oppose widening the trail for any reason.

Many people do not realize that widening the trail is a major construction project that will drastically affect not only the natural environment, but also the aesthetics of the trail.

Trail Preparation

Per Bloomington Parks and Recreation, a new shared pedestrian/bike trail would try to match the new paved MN Valley State trail, so would be 10 feet wide.
Constructing a 10-foot-wide paved trail in Central Park would entail leveling the area and removing all trees, vegetation, and roots for 5 feet on both sides of the trail.
That means 20 feet of leveling for a 10-foot trail. (The image above, of the MN Valley State trail, shows a 20-foot swath—we measured it).
The current trails are typically from 7- to 9-feet in width.
In the picture at right, you can see that large old tree would need to be cut down. (Location: between mile markers .6 and .7).

Trail curves

Trail guidelines suggest the proper degree of curvature for a trail based on its use. Curves on a mixed bike/pedestrian trail need to be less intense than those on a pedestrian-only trail so that cyclists can see oncoming pedestrians around curves.
This image shows both how winding the current trail is and also that it is too narrow for bicycles at this time.
The narrow trails bring walkers closer to nature, providing a more intimate experience of the forest than a wider trail. (Location: near mile marker .3)

Instead of hills, we’ll have retaining walls

In a narrow valley such as the one in Central Park, harder stone resists erosion by the creek’s current and over time spurs are formed—fingers of land that jut out into the river valley.

The trail is sometimes sandwiched between the creek and a spur.
In sections where a spur comes close to the planned trail, the spurs will need to be bulldozed and retaining walls will need to be installed.
The image shows a spot on the trail with a blind curve. A large portion of this steep hill would be cut away and the rest would be held in place with a high retaining wall. (Location: between mile markers .7 and .8).

This diagram shows how the spur would need to be cut through and the area flattened to widen the trail and eliminate the blind curve.

This is the previous image showing approximately how much of the hill would need to be cut away to clear 20-feet. The retaining wall would probably be at least 7 feet high.

How many new retaining walls would there be?

Without knowing the City’s exact plans, we can’t say for sure, but this map shows many of the locations we think will need high retaining walls. This is why Restore the Nine says that allowing bicycles into the park would not allow more people to get close to nature—it would literally separate visitors from nature with walls.

What a tall retaining wall looks like

There are just a few retaining walls on the trail now. This one, under 106th Street, is the tallest by far: 7 feet tall at its highest point. It would be even taller if the trail is widened.

Which do you prefer—walking or riding along tree-lined trails, or past retaining walls higher than your head?

Trees will be cut down

Needless to say, many, many trees will need to be cut down to widen the trail. With the intensity of climate change increasing yearly, cutting down trees and replacing them with pavement hardly seems wise.

In this photo, you can see the small trees on the hill that will be destroyed if the trail is widened. The two trees you can see at the curve are huge, old cottonwoods. These trees will likely die, even if they aren’t cut down, because of the damage that would be done to their root systems by constructing a trail.

Location: near the .4 mile marker.

Shade

Notice how shady the trail is here. Once the trees along the trail have been cut down, there won’t be any more shade. You’ll be walking or biking in the sun.

Location: near the .9 mile marker.

South of the James Rd. trailhead

Most of the previous pictures were taken north of 106th Street because that’s a narrow valley and will most obviously be severely damaged by widening the trail.

South of 106th Street, past the James Road trailhead, the valley widens out into a floodplain forest.

Down here, there won’t be a need for retaining walls, but you can see how many trees would need to be cut down to create a 20-foot leveled area around the current 9-foot-wide trail.

This area floods every year. That’s why having an unpaved trail in this section is smart.

A case study

Here is a spot where the trail is sandwiched between the creek and a hill. It is about 8 feet wide at this point, and the photo was taken at the end of a bridge, facing north.

To see what we think would happen to this spot, click the link.

Case Study