Calsun

Sure and take out more ancient redwoods to make room for an additional 10 feet on each side of the existing road? Avenue of the Giants with no trucking traffic and few RVs is currently one of the nicest places to bicycle in the world. I say that based on my first hand experience riding that section of highway for the past 51 years.

Korina

I never said that; I said paralleling the road not on it. A (admittedly probably unpaved) trail could easily be routed around the trees. 32 miles of trail might be ambitious, but doable if you make it in sections. Especially if you can make it by hand rather than machine; I've done it, it's a lot of work, but it comes out better and causes minimal disturbance. It's a pipe dream, but it would be pretty awesome.

PoweredByVeg

I just picked up cycling again and got wind of this - incredibly exciting! I live down in the SMART train area, Cloverdale to Golden Gate North which is the bottom end of the GRT. Good news is this is already funded, and much of it is done, and this is maybe the hardest part since it goes through the population centers? Above Cloverdale its mostly open country I think, anyhow should be a simpler problem once the red tape is cleared through.

Anyhow SMART is funded by our taxes, originally it was to have a dedicated bike lane the whole way, but they had a second funding vote which lost, so they decided to do a combination of dedicated trail which hooks into existing trail and street bike lanes. Long story short, by next year more sections will be done and others going north will be in the design phase, I believe it’s all funded. So, if you want to ride a decent portion of the trail you can do so within the next two years. Cloverdale to SF Bay is what, a good 90-120 miles or something.

Gravel is just fine with me. Asphalt is a huge cost and logistical issue, and it needs a gravel base anyhow unless you want it to fall apart in a few years. The smart move is to put gravel in, and let communities asphalt local sections of the money and interest is there.

Korina

@PoweredByVeg, it's very exciting! Have you gotten on the GRTA's mailing list?

The Skunk Train's owners lost yet another court case when the judge said they aren't a public utility and therefore do NOT have the right of eminent domain. I believe they're the last hurdle to railbanking the southern section, so watching them go down in flames is quite satisfying.

PoweredByVeg

Korina Yes I have thanks, and great news about the Smelly Train …

Elephant in the room is funding. Not surprising given slowing economy California is facing a deficit (as is my local city), do you or anybody here have a realistic assessment of how this will play out? OK the present conditions will turn around at some point, but as I understand it they’ve got something like 10M for making a plan, say they come out with architectural drawings and a detailed plan from that (unlikely but stay with me), how will it go from there?

By the way I have to say having worked for big corp in private industry I’m always amazed at how public projects work. I watched a good portion of the kickoff livestream McGuire ran, and when one person described her 80 person department as ‘small’ my jaw literally dropped. In private industry (big S&P sized companies) that would be the size of a large entire division … so for example 10M say for coming up with a master plan - which undoubtedly will be low calorie and light on concrete details, in my experience is … a lot. Too bad this couldn’t be run the way the space industry has gone, which is public funding (NASA) with private ownership providing services (SpaceX). Amazing things can happen really quickly with that arrangement, but I’m digressing ...

Korina

Good questions, I wish I had answers. What I remember from the assessment a couple of years ago is that a large portion of the cost will be for cleaning up after the railroad. There are rusting tracks, rail cars, old ties, everywhere including the Eel River. I don't know if the state will go so far as to steam clean the gravel around the tracks, but it needs to be cleaned up anyway, trail or no.

They do plan to do it in sections, going with the easiest parts first and saving the hardest part (lookin' at you, Eel River Canyon) for last. As Senator McGuire has said all along, this isn't going to be a fast project; it's going to take years, and I imagine funding will be part of it. I do know that the Senator has worked hard for this for a long time, and I don't think he's going to let it languish for lack of money. I expect it to be as (in)efficient as any other government-run project.

Heck, parts of the trail already exist! There's a section in Ukiah, the Elk River Estuary/Hikshari'/Waterfront Trail in Eureka (the county has begun planning the next section south to College of the Redwoods), the Humboldt Bay Trail that connects to the Waterfront Trail (groundbreaking for the missing middle section is in a couple of days), with the northern section in Arcata completed six years ago, and the city's working on expanding that another few miles to the Mad River and eventually to Blue Lake. So I don't think it's going to all be state funded; I hope more communities will take it upon themselves to build sections through their towns.

PoweredByVeg

Yeah that’s a good point, I used to know Mike actually, way back on what I think was his first job as a manager for an election campaign. He’s a good guy, you’re right he won’t let it moulder.

ShannonM

Korina, do you know the status / timeline for the Hi'kari trail extension down towards College of the Redwoods? It'd be so awesome to be able to ride from Fields Landing to Eureka without ever setting rubber onto 101...

--Shannon

(Or the County could just resurface Old Broadway between King Salmon and Humboldt Hill, but that's never gonna happen... the roads were better when I lived in Salmon Creek!)

Korina

Hey, Shannon. There's an advisory committee working out the route now; it'll mostly go on the tracks, but there are one or two sections that are uncomfortably close to the water and the bay is subsiding fast. Five years to completion is possible, but six to eight is more likely. HTH.

Leinster

Great Redwood Trail master plan was released the other day.

https://greatredwoodtrailplan.org

Korina

Thanks; I should have done that. BTW, it's the draft master plan; there's still a ways to go. The GRTA had an open house for the plan last night in Eureka. It was very busy and I hope productive.