Campbell Creek Bike Trail Under Seward Highway

The Anchorage Daily News has an editorial today about completing the Campbell-Chester Creek Trail loop around UAA. That part just needs better signage for people who don't know it. The real key is completing the large loop of the Campbell Creek to Coastal Trail to Chester Creek. And a major problem is Seward Highway and Campbell Creek.

Yesterday I had to go to CompUSA on Dimond from the University. Should I drive or bike? It was a beautiful day, but the bike trail doesn't quite go the way I wanted to go. The big gap in the bike trail is under Seward Highway. The trail to the highway is great and after, but there's this gap. Lanie Fleischer - who was one (and she emphasizes that there were many others) of the early bike trail advocates and whose name is on the trail at Goose Lake - told me once long ago that she talked to the engineers building the Seward Highway. She wanted them to make sure it would be easy to one day build a bike trail under the highway along Campbell Creek. She said they sneered and purposely built it low. Lanie has no reason to make up such a story.

In any case, yesterday I decided to bike it. Here's the obstacle.

I rode south on Lake Otis to 47th, (#1 on the map) I think, where I picked up the bike trail headed west through the Waldron area, past the soccer fields and the small lake. It winds through a small park to Campbell Creek and then ends.
There is a dirt path through the woods, but I took the quiet neighborhood street to the Seward Highway. (#2) The pictures below are getting under the Seward Highway - the box on the map by #2.











This is where the little dirt path begins to go down and under the first of the four bridges (one each for north and south of Seward Highway, and a frontage road bridge on each side).















Down under the bridges.









While traffic whizzes by above, down under the bridges it's a totally different world.





And after the last bridge, now on the west side of the Seward Highway, you take another small dirt path and the new bike trail begins again with this wooden bridge.
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Note on this post. The reason I went to Dimond was to buy iLife08 which includes iMovie08 - a totally new way of putting together movies from iMovie06. I did this movie in the new software just by going to help when I had a problem. It is incredibly easy and intuitive. And I saw the other day that there is a new upload video button on blogger, so I wanted to try that out too. It would mean not having to post first on Viddler. But it is taking forever to upload. Let's see what it looks like when it's done.
Well, there's the answer. [When I'm making the post, there's a video screen saying "Uploading Video" but I also got a message saying it can't upload it.] It appears that I can't upload it in Viddler, it's too long for YouTube and it didn't upload here. A quick Google shows that a lot of people are having trouble with iMovie. So I'll just post this for now and see what I can do. [And it doesn't come up. I'm guessing it's too big. But the file format doesn't work for Viddler and it's clearly too big for YouTube.]

Taku Lake Beaver and Campbell Creek Bike Trail Improvements

Riding home on the Campbell Creek bike trail from last night's book club meeting near Campbell Lake, I saw a big brown lump swimming through the water of Taku Lake carrying a good sized piece of wood in its mouth.








It was clear that he had been busy for a while.  There were quite a few of these chewed off tree stumps. 






A couple of big cottonwoods showed the early chewing of a beaver, but someone had put wire around the trunk before it got too far.

The beaver disappeared under the water where the chewed tree goes into the water.

The Campbell Creek trail ends (for me, begins for others) in the southwest near Victor and Dimond.  It's a great diagonal commuting trail for anyone going from that area - Dimond High is near that end too - to the Alaska Native Medical Center on Tudor past Elmore or spots in-between.  From Dimond to ANMC it's through the woods with occasional views of houses or businesses and there are only three spots where the trail abruptly ends to cross a street - Dowling, Seward Highway, and Lake Otis. 

They've already begun work at Dowling.  According to a Department of Transportation document   they will "replace Campbell Creek Bridge, install a new traffic signal at C Street, re-align the Campbell Creek Trail to go under the new bridge. . ." 


The picture is of the trail yesterday, from north of Dowling.  A new trail goes up to the left.  I think it will go to the new trail along Dowling, and the old trail will go under the new bridge and no longer cross the street.  The orange fencing on the right of the picture is where they are re-aligning the creek.






The infamous 'gap' under the New Seward Highway where you had to carefully maneuver you bike under four bridges of rocky trail (I see that some of the pictures have vanished from that post, I'll try to recover them soon) and sometimes high water, is now being changed into official bike trail.  They are going to raise each of the four bridges (north and south parts of the highway and the frontage roads).  Here's a shot from the east side of the Seward Highway from last week.    The project engineer told me that the September 2014 completion date will be for landscaping, but the trail should be complete by September 2013.




They've blocked it with a big chain link fence.

The only place you'll have to cross a street is at Lake Otis.  Either a few side streets to get to the tunnel or if you go directly, Lake Otis itself. 

The Seward Highway is less than 1/4 mile west of this map.


For now, the best option (going southwest) seems to be to go to Tudor and back up Old Seward Highway to the Peanut Farm or Arctic Roadrunner to pick up the trail again. 

Campbell Creek Bike Trail Under Seward Highway Almost Ready

The target date for completing the bike trail under the Seward Highway is Fall 2013.  The trail is there, but the path hasn't been paved nor has the path otherwise been finished off.  But they have completely new bridges in and we walked by there the other evening.
[UPDATE October 19, 2013 - It semi-officially opened today and is open for riding.]

From the west side you can walk the trail, under the highway bridge.

Here's what this looked like in 2007.]

 

When the State does a project, they tend to obliterate the landscape and then build it back up from scratch.  I'm sure they have good reasons for it.  In this case the bridge has been expanded greatly.  Before there was just a little edge along the path under a bridge you had to duck to get under in spots.  Now the space next to the creek is bigger, it seems, than the creek.  

Here's what this spot looked like in May 2012:

 

And here's going under the bridge the other day:

And near the same spot in 2008.  This was the whole trail then right against the water.  And when the creek was really high, the whole trail was gone.  The heavy equipment is between me and the water above - also the orange fencing is along the water.  And the bridges were shorter and lower.

There are four bridges - (from the east) first the frontage road, then the northbound highway, southbound highway, and the western frontage road.  Here's a little past the first bridge (maybe even the second one.)

And here's what that used to look like:

 

Once you get out from under the highway, instead of the one-bike winding path through the fireweed, there's more bike superhighway up to this bridge which is blocked for now.   At the right times, you can watch the spawning salmon from this bridge.  We're very close to The Wild Berry tourist trap at this point, just west of the Seward Highway (see map below). 

Getting to this bridge used to look like this:

Turning around at this point, it now looks like this:

One more picture of the bridges - now looking east from the west side. 

And here's a map for the area.  I started on the east and went to the west, then turned around and went back where the wooden bridge was blocked off.

When this is done, you'll be able to ride from downtown out to Westchester Lagoon up the Chester Creek trail to Goose Lake and the the University crossing either over or under all streets via tunnels and bridges.  At the university you have to cross a parking lot and a few streets to get to the bridge at Tudor and Bragaw (now Elmore), and then on the Campbell Creek bike trail.  There's a bit of a break in the trail at Lake Otis, but then you get back on a wooded trail that will go under the Seward Highway and then on to just past Victor near Dimond coming out at Dimond High School.  Then there zigging and zagging through neighborhoods to connect to the trail in Kincaid park, and from there you can get back downtown.

The Trails of Anchorage site  says it's 13 miles from Kincaid Chalet to Goose Lake, and I'm guessing it's not much less for the rest of the loop I described.

Here's a link to the Arctic Bicycle Club.

Bicyclists Getting A Little More Respect This Year From DOT

Last Saturday when I biked over to the Japanese Summer Festival, I noticed that for once, the Department of Transportation was thinking about cyclists and even gave us some benefits cars didn't get.  I knew there was construction on the Campbell Creek trail under the Seward Highway and at Dowling and I decided to take surface streets to avoid that.  But going south on C Street from Tudor, I saw there was a detour at Potter.

BUT, while cars were forced to go right or left because C Street was closed, the bike path on the west side of C Street was open, allowing me to keep to my route.  And it was marked too.  This is something that didn't use to happen.  But clearly someone had to have thought about this and said, "Well, we can leave the bike trail open."  Hey, humor me, I measure progress in very small increments.

On the way home, without having to worry about time, I picked up the Campbell Creek trail at its terminus near Dimond High School. 


The cow parsnip was in full bloom along the path.  This picture of the creek along the trail should give you a sense why I was willing to add a mile to my (now seven mile) trip back to be on the trail instead of the city streets. 

Under Minnesota the creek had flooded and the trail was covered in mud and water.  Fortunately there were some drier spots (on the left.)







But then it was beautiful again.

At Taku Lake  (I posted a video of the beaver I saw there already), there was also this duck dock right near the trail. So much nicer that navigating the sidewalks and intersections. 








But soon I was nearing Dowling and getting curious how I was going to get past the construction.  I needn't have worried.  There was a big sign blocking the path, but pointing out a detour.  In the past, there just would have been a sign blocking the path with no help for the cyclist to navigate around the blockage.  But this detour led to the construction site (Dowling Road) where a flagger got me and a pedestrian past the heavy equipment and around to another flagger who directed me to more signs that led me easily back to the bike path.

At Old Seward Highway, after the Arctic Road Runner near the Peanut Farm, the signs aren't quite as helpful.  There they say the trail is blocked at Seward Highway and direct you to take Tudor or Dowling.  There, you really have to know how to find the bike trail yourself.  You have to wander through the neighborhoods to pick it up after the creek crosses under the New Seward Highway, where they are widening the road and raising the bridges over the creek and where, by the end of next summer they say, there will be a real bike trail under the highway.  Now, from Tudor, looking south, the construction looks like this.

When the trail goes under Dowling and New Seward when this construction is done, you'll be able to bike from Dimond and Northwood to University Lake between APU and the Native Hospital (about 7.5 miles) with only having to cross one street (Lake Otis).  It mostly follows Campbell Creek going under or over bridges at other roads.   And I found this cool 2009 video by MijelRiak that takes you on the trail from New Seward Highway to Dimond and Northwood.  (Where the video crosses the street is Dowliing, where the construction is now.)

Campbell Creek Bike Trail Under Seward Highway Tonight

There's a meeting tonight to talk about 'improvements' to the Seward Highway between Dowling and 36th.  According to Rep. Berta Gardner's November 11, 2010 email to constituents

I spoke yesterday with Jim Amundson of the Department of Transportation and confirmed that sound barrier fencing (36^th Avenue to Dowling) and a bike path at Campbell Creek under the Seward Highway both remain in the project.   DOT plans to begin "turning dirt" in Spring 2011!

Some history.  Lanie Fleischer, who was one of the key people to get the bike trails built in Anchorage over 30 years ago and whose name is on the bike trail sign at Goose Lake, told me that the engineer in charge of building the Seward Highway, way back then, told her they were going to build the highway low enough that they could never have the bike trail go under it.  Non-motorized vehicle riders in those days were considered anti-capitalist, pinkos.   So now, at far greater expense than necessary, we are finally getting that part of the trail completed.  If the trail stays in the project.  So get down there to let them know you want that bike trail finally done.

If you can't go, call them up and email and tell them you support the bike trail.   Contact information below.  It's not a done deal until they have it in the plans, in the works, and finished. 


Here's the info from the Department of Transportation website:

Body of Notice:

Wednesday, November 17, 2010
5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Sourdough Mining Company
5200 Juneau St.
Anchorage, AK 99518

Seward Highway: Dowling Road to Tudor Road

The State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) invites you to a public open house regarding the Seward Highway: Dowling Road to Tudor Road project. DOT&PF has completed the environmental phase of this project and is proceeding with design.

Why should you attend this meeting?

The meeting will provide information on the project and solicit public comments for consideration during the design phase.

The meeting will be in an open-house format, so you can stop by at any time during the scheduled hours. Staff from the project and DOT&PF will be available to discuss, answer questions and take your comments regarding the project.

Contacts:
Project Manager, Derek Christianson
CH2M HILL [This is the company that bought VECO from Bill Allen.]
Phone: 762-1358
sewardhwy.comments@ch2m.com

Project Manager, Jim Amundsen
DOT&PF
Phone: 269-0595
jim.amundsen@alaska.gov

Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage already has a post on this.

UPDATES: Green Screen Mystery, Campbell Creek Under Seward Highway, and Sugar Shack Reopened

Chong Kim is the project engineer in charge of the Seward Highway reconstruction from Tudor to Dowling, which includes the Campbell Creek bike trail.  I'd gone for a bike ride today to keep some hold of my sanity and looked for the DOT office behind the donut shop at Lake Otis and Tudor.


He apologized for not answering my phone call.  I'd left a message asking when the bike path would be done.  He said he was still trying to pin down the contractor before calling me back, but since weather is such a big factor, it's hard to say.  He figures about 2 or 2.5 weeks until it's all done.  By September 30th.  [I'd posted anyway a few days ago with then and now pictures.]

[UPDATE Oct 11:  I've updated with pictures from Oct. 9.  Mr. Kim told me maybe next week.]

In our chat I had a minor revelation.  He looked at the pictures I took last week of the path and he pointed to some hardware connected to the ground and then pointed to some green, transparent fabric on the wall in his office.  They will attach some fencing to that hardware.  Suddenly I had a flash - those strange green screens we'd seen where the Campbell Creek trail goes under Martin Luther King Blvd.  The ones with the images of the skier, biker, and walker.  The screens that we'd shaken our heads over in wonder at who would have put such boring art up.  I made some disparaging comments in a post this summer about a similar (unfinished) screen (below) where the Campbell Creek trail goes under the new bridge at Dowling.  (You used to have to cross the street at this point.)

It turns out these are to keep trail users from being covered with snow by a snow plow clearing the road above them.  Another reminder to myself to not jump to conclusions, but if it's strange, to assume there is something I'm not getting. Am I going to wait next winter to video tape a snow plow at this spot?  Don't hold your breath. 

It all makes sense now.  As it turns out, he said the Feds (EPA and another agency) say they may not plow into the creek anyway from the Seward Highway, but Chong said debris falls from passing vehicles so it's still good to have there. 

A Hopeful Note

I also talked to the office engineer who said, when I wanted to know the date for the bike trail completion, "You and everybody else.  That's the only thing people call to ask about."

I just want to document that piece of feedback about public interest in the bike trails, because I doubt that they are keeping track of that sort of feedback for the DOT administrators or for the legislators in Juneau, some of whom think people who ride bikes are anti-capitalists. 

And finally, the Sugar Shack reopened today.  It's not giant news, but this is a small local business that got trashed by vandals last May.  The thoughtless vandals cost this business almost four months of business and inconvenienced all the people who pass by here and regularly stop for a beverage.

UPDATE: Campbell Creek Bike Trail Under Seward Highway Almost Done

I checked on the Campbell Creek bike trail under the Seward Highway project last night (Thursday, Oct. 10).  My last post on this was Sept. 10.   On Sept. 6 I posted pictures of the unpaved trail and what it looked like in the past when you had to carry your bike under the low bridges. 

It's now paved and almost done.  This morning I called the project engineer Chong Kim who said he's hoping it will be done next week.  In this first photo - from the west side - you can see the fence like structure.  It's designed to deflect snow coming from a snow plow on the road above and keeping it off the trail and off people walking or riding on the trail.  Kim said five more are supposed to go up and they are the last major parts that need to be done. 

This shot is from the east looking west.  There are four new bridges - the east access road, which you see here; the north bound Seward Highway;  south bound Seward Highway; and the west access road. 










The reason you can't really use this part of the path yet is this fence on the bridge on the west side. Once the other

Looking at this fence, turn 180˚ and you see the picture below.

This is looking at the path and bridge from the west. 

Above I'm looking east from under one of the bridges.

Looking up I saw what I thought were lights, but they were strange looking and I couldn't see them quite as clearly as I can now looking at the photo. 

I asked Kim about them.  They are LED lights which use much less energy than regular lights would.  But they're pretty expensive and he expressed concern about vandalism or theft.  I asked if I should post about this.  He said yes and to let cyclists know that if they see anyone tampering with the lights to call the police (and maybe take a picture as well.)  I guess he figured not too many LED thieves read this blog, but cyclists might. 
 


Taking the trail further east - toward Lake Otis - I took this shot of the leaf carpeted trail.