SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Del Rio Trail is nearly finished. The five-mile trail used to be an abandoned railway corridor and it runs west of Freeport from near Sutterville to Pocket Road.
Adam Randolph is the project manager and senior civil engineer with the city. He says they’re down to the fine details now. Last week, the pedestrian signals were turned on, the last trees were planted about two weeks ago and all the paving is about done.
Randolph says the trail will be a user-friendly continuous five miles for all.
“Before, we had roadways that you didn't want to cross. We had fields of weeds instead of a nice path to actually walk on. It’s just a night and day difference from what everything started as,” said Randolph. “It provides a connection to so many different neighborhoods, different parks. It provides an amazing alternative to having to get into your car to get anywhere.”
He says Sutterville and Fruitridge have pedestrian signals that turn traffic lights red for people to cross and South Land Park Drive has a flashing beacon crossing. To cross, trail users can push the button and the light turns red.
43rd and 35th Avenues have curb extensions to shorten the length of crosswalks, encouraging cars to go slower.
Randolph says they are still asking people not use the trail right now. They are shooting for a May 1 opening, with a ribbon cutting later in May.
When it opens, the roughly five miles of trail will be open for use, but Randolph says they ran into a couple of issues with the large bridge over I-5 just north of Sutterville, so that may not be open come May 1.
According to a city of Sacramento spokesperson, Class I & II e-bikes are allowed on all of the shared-use paths, including the Del Rio Trail. Both scooters and motorized boards are also allowed on shared-use paths as long as they do not exceed 15 mph.
You may also see signs along the trail that read bicycle lights are required from sunset to sunrise.
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