Maple Highlands Trail To Be Completed This Year
After several years of planning, the Maple Highlands Trail will be completed this year for a total cost of $638,374. Geauga Park District…
After several years of planning, the Maple Highlands Trail will be completed this year for a total cost of $638,374.
Geauga Park District Board of Commissioners approved contracts for the construction of two uncompleted portions of the trail last Tuesday.
The first uncompleted section is to be an asphalt portion connecting the northern half of the trail along state Route 44 with Fifth Avenue in Chardon, a project costing $353,924.
The contract was awarded to Easton Leasing, Inc, of Orwell, the low bidder.
The northern portion of the trail now begins of few hundred feet north of the Chardon post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol station on Route 44.
Plans call for the connection to run near a FirstEnergy transmission line and along an abandoned railroad right-of-way to Fifth Avenue, where a proposed Chardon bike and walking trail will begin.
The southern section of the Maple Highlands Trail will be a gravel portion running from Headwaters Park in Claridon Township to the Swine Creek Reservation in southeastern Middlefield Township, a project costing $284,450.
The lowest bidder, LCI Construction, of Kirtland, will create the southern extension, which will consist of several sections.
The first will run between Headwaters Park and Burton Windsor Road.
It is particularly important to the safety of Amish buggies because the trail will allow them to bypass a steep and dangerous section of state Route 608 just north of Burton-Windsor Road.
This portion will also run across several acres of Grandview Golf Course land purchased by the park district several years ago for the trail extension.
From there, it will tie in with an existing gravel portion of the trail Amish buggies use that ends at Tare Creek Parkway in Middlefield.
Another section will run from Tare Creek Parkway to state Route 608 in the Village of Middlefield, along the highway and into a side street, where it connects to another existing gravel buggy path located in southeastern Middlefield.
From there, the trail extension will continue southeast to Bridge Road, where it will run along the road until it enters the Swine Creek Reservation.
Even though a construction schedule won’t be available from the contractors for about another month, Park District Marketing and Communications Director Paige Orvis said work on the northern and southern extensions should begin in May and continue throughout the summer.
Approved along with the extensions of the Maple Highlands Trail were $215,740 in asphalt improvements to roads and parking lots in Big Creek Park in Chardon Township.
A total of $27,100 in paving alternates was also approved as part of this project.
The spending of $60,000 to build a picnic shelter at Observatory Park was tabled until April because the lowest bid exceeded a 10 percent bidding limit and needs to be rebid if it is to be completed in 2013.
Tom Curtin, park district executive director, said the cost of shelter could be less expensive if it is included in other work to be done in Observatory Park next year.
