SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new trail along the American River Parkway broke ground Friday, initiating the second phase of the over decade-long project.
The trail aims to give Sacramento State students a safer way to bike and walk from the apartments in midtown and downtown to campus.
"This is 13 years in the making, a $7 million project, 2.4 miles," said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
The trail, called the Two Rivers Trail, will run along the American River Parkway from the H Street Bridge to Sutter’s Landing Park and will pave over the lower level gravel path.
It's something not everyone is happy with.
"When you go further down, there are more trees. It's more natural. If they were to pave anything, they should pave the upper one not the lower one,” said Lorraine Fraas, a resident who has lived in the area for seven years and enjoys the current trail.
Others are worried the new pavement will be too hot for their pets to walk on in the summer.
"My dog loves it, it’s like his Disneyland. I kind of like the way it looks natural because my dog likes to run and down,” said William Barnes.
Another concern people have raised is how the trail would displace the homeless living along the parkway. Steinberg says the city and county will contact those impacted and offer resources.
"We have a lot of shelters beds and outreach teams, but it’s together that we have to make sure we address the impacts of any good project certainly but it’s bigger than that it overall working to help as many people as possible and create a cleaner and safer city," he said.
Five trees were removed for this project, causing upset to some especially after the Army Corps of Engineers also recently removed many trees in the area.
Adam Randolph, project manager, says their rehabilitation efforts at Sutter's Landing will make up for it.
"Trying to take away some of the social trails out there and restore them to a more natural state. We are also planting a lot of trees in that area to mitigate for whatever damages we did with this project," said Randolph.
City leaders expect to have phase two of the trail paved by end of this year. Phase three will include having the trail connect from Sutter’s Landing Park to 28th Street.
