Our First Trail Cleanup Day Was A Success
My Trail Cleanup Rig
Richardson continues to impress us with their network of great bike and pedestrian access routes throughout the city. As part of that, we have some really nice multi-purpose trails. However, over time and through excessive usage, they have’ve gotten covered in litter, animal waste and broken glass. Instead of complaining about the mess, Bike Friendly Richardson decided to take the maintenance and care of our trail network into our own hands.
My Bike with Howard and His Goat, Billy
We scheduled our first, hopefully of many, Trail Clean Up Days. Given such short notice, and everybody’s busy schedules, our first turnout wasn’t that great. We did get a few volunteers from all around the city, as well as somebody from our neighboring city, Plano. The plan was to try and fill as many trash bags (provided by the city) as possible in two hours.
Overall, we were pretty successful in filling 8-10 bags—not bad for a small group of people. Think about what we could have accomplished with more volunteers. There was still a lot more trash on the trail that we couldn’t get to. Perhaps we’ll get it all the next time.
Our goal is to do this more often than not—hopefully in other parts of the city as well. We only hope is that we’ve inspired other people to get out there and care for the public areas near them. This is our city, and we need to take responsibility for it.
Getting The Trash Beyond The Trail
More Trail Progress
It’s amazing what could happen in a week. They had the forms set up last weekend for the addition to the trail at Renner Road and Central. This week we have about 70-80 yards of hike and bike trail, leading us closer to the pass under Central. Check back and we’ll keep you posted with more progress as it happens.
Last Weekend
Today
More to come...
On a side note, I met a really nice lady on the bike trails today. Jill was getting back on the bike for the first time in years. I told her about BFR and she seemed excited about the idea of a group that is more about riding for fun or utility over sport. Seems, like with most of us, the intimidation of the sport cycling culture has kept her off the bike. We hope to see more riders, like Jill, rediscover the enjoyment of riding their bikes – at their own pace.
Follow our coverage of this trail construction:
July 25, 2010
June 13, 2010
May 8, 2010
April 3, 2010
March 11, 2010
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Trail Construction Moving Forward Nicely
If you are following along as we track the construction of the newest hike and bike trails in Richardson, we’ve got some new pics for you. If you haven’t been following along with our coverage of Spring Creek Park, you can click on these links to catch up:
Under Construction-Two Bike Trails Under Central Expressway
The paths and retaining walls are coming along nicely. Unfortunately, with all that’s involved with construction along the creeks, the underpasses don’t appear to be very far along. However, I’m sure there’s more finished than what is visible.
Enjoy:
Start Of Trail Construction Coming Out Of Spring Creek Park
New Retaining Wall (shot facing south along the east side of Central)
More Retaining Wall (Shot facing north along the east side of Central)
Still not much progress under Central Expressway
Not much progress under Renner Road either
Trail north of Renner Road coming along nicely
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More Trail Construction Pics
As we’ve reported earlier, Richardson is putting some nice trails under Central (US75) Expressway. What we haven’t shown you yet are the trails leading to these routes. On my ride today, I was able to check out and shoot some pics of the new construction.
Here is the view of the construction about 100 feet south of the southeast corner of Renner and Central. The point-of-view is facing south. This new trail leads off of the Spring Creek Trail (right after the last bridge) and heads south towards the underpass.
This is the last stretch of the Spring Creek Trail before it gets to the rest station at the southeast corner of Renner and Central. The point-of-view is facing south. This shows the new branch (to the left) which leads to a trail under Renner. That trail leads to the other Central Expressway underpass that’s located just north of Renner.
Note the bridge in the background and the construction for the new trail (seen above).
Heading east off of the new branch (see above). The point-of-view is facing east. Here the trail ends and the construction begins for the trail under Renner Road. Again, this trail will lead to the northern passage under Central Expressway. I’m hoping this trail will lead to the Bush DART station as well.
ONE MORE THING:
While riding along the UTD trail on Campbell, I noticed that the trees were being removed for transplant. I’m curious to why these are being moved and what will be happening to this part of the university. I Googled it, but got nothing. IF you know, please let us know.
UPDATE about UTD: BFR friend, Brad M, shot us an email with some more information about changes happening at UTD. He writes:
I do not know specifically where the trees are being moved, however I do know there is an entirely new entrance being constructed and the circulation into campus will totally change. You can see this on the mast plan on the UTD website. There is some type of landscape element being graded where you see the land scraped behind the trees. I am sure the trees are being re-organized in another pattern shown on the plan.
Click here for more details. It will be interesting to see the new hedgerow along Campbell Road, as well as a larger entrance to the university.
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