As of today, Indian Creek Trail is now officially close at Switzer road until "March 2012."
View Indian Creek Trail Closure August 2011 to March 2012 in a larger map
The red line above is the section of the trail marked as closed. The blue line is the posted detour.
I spoke with a polite gentleman at the Park Services Department a week or so ago and he had told me that they would be setting up a detour, but he admitted that it might not be completely bike friendly. He wasn't kidding, although only half of the detour causes me much concern.
The signs went up within the last day or two. Here are the signs at 119th, just east of Quivera.
The narrow sidewalk has several low hanging branches to contend with. Also, there won't be enough room for passing another bike or pedestrians. I believe there were eight places where you had to cross over streets or highway on or off ramps. 119th is a busy street and 69 highway and 119th is a busy interchange. Depending on the day and time of day, this could take a while to navigate.
The detour also runs along Grant Drive between College Blvd. (111th) and 119th.
Once you're on Grant, things should calm down a bit as the street is wide enough for both automobile and bicycle traffic.
The detour adds 0.3 miles to the ride and the hill up to 119th and Grant is impressive. I'll still make the loop occasionally, but I believe I'll find some other places to ride until this is finished. Again, the 119th section is too narrow and busy to use more than once in a while.
14 comments:
Thanks for the update, Warren!
As an alternate to the 119th detour, I have been using Nieman north from 119th, then east on College back to the trail at Corporate Woods. It's really not too bad, College is three lanes in both directions, and during my morning and evening commute, traffic on College has been managable to light.
Dave, it's worth a try. I may give it a shot this weekend. When I tried crossing College at Switzer (to the Access Road -- which is NOT AN OPTION) it was way too busy for comfort. Isn't riding along College a bit challenging at the Alternate 69 ramps?
Yes, the 69 ramps at College are a little dicey. I'm thru there at 6:45a and 6:00p, and the traffic hasn't been too heavy, but it sure isn't my preferred route! I have seen a few other commuters in this vicinity, so folks are finding there way around the trail closure. But March is a long way off before we get the mess fixed.
I tried to ride College Blvd. west at rush hour last night attempting to get from the Corporate Woods area to Johnson County Community College (I should have my head examined…). If the underpass for 69 Highway wasn’t bad enough, the construction vehicles on the west side nearly finished me off. I didn’t find navigating under 69 highway on 119th street to be much safer.
Are there any safer options ?
Rick, other than the 119th sidewalk/Grant street option? No. Before they closed it off I tried taking a spur of the ICT to the Access road that comes out to College directly across from Switzer (see above). No way I'll try that again. Unfortunately, there are no other good options.
I travel down College from Neiman at 5:10AM, Not a problem!. The problem is coming home & detouring from Corporate Woods to head west on the sidewalk at College. Road workers leave sand-bags, road signs & dirt piled up on the sidewalk. When it rains their's a few yards of mud making it even more difficult.
I use neiman and college each morning at 7:30 ish and it's not too bad since my speed is higher going down the hill. In the afternoon after 5 it's a little more nerve racking as I have to pedal up the hill and traffic is busy until 5:30 or so. I tried a version of the grant ave detour but I seems to take too long.
Dave and Scott, do you stay on College or take the sidewalk? Just curious. I'm going to be trying Nieman & College tomorrow morning, weather permitting.
Anywhere to get updates on when the trail will be open again? They certainly can't blame the weather for any delays.
Mike, I plan on riding out there to get current pictures. I'll do some other digging as well and will post an update within the next few days.
Heard on the news this week that Switzer won't be opening until late June.
Mike, it's worse than that. I called the Parks department and they say October. I've got a new post up.
They did a real nice switch on this...I checked on progress in Feb because of the ultra mild winter and thought I was going crazy: the signs NOW say closed to FALL 2012!!!! It is actually passable now in off hours (after 4ish, on weekends, but not after a rain).
As for low hanging trees on the detour go to the OP site and give the address. The code requires a 7 or 10 foot clearance (cant remember the details for each bedroom community), and from 1 to 3 feet BACK from the sidewalk or street depending on the street.
Post a Comment