Thomas McMurtry with Avenue Consultants spoke with SVI Media’s Dan Dockstader regarding the ongoing Lincoln County Transportation Plan, specifically for a trails system in the upper valley area of Star Valley.

(0:00) Thomas McMurtry, Avenue Consultants. He just finished a presentation here at the (0:04) Afton Civic Center with local leaders talking about an Upper Valley plan that (0:09) would provide something in terms of trails for bicycles, walking, much more. (0:15) Thomas, what did you present here today? Yeah, that’s absolutely right.

We’ve been (0:19) working on the Upper Valley Transportation Alternatives Plan and the (0:23) transportation alternatives we’ve been looking at is to accommodate bicycles and (0:26) pedestrians better throughout the Star Valley area. So it includes more than (0:31) Afton, it includes like Grover and Fairview and Osmond and the areas around (0:36) down to Smoot. And so the things that we’ve been looking at is where we need (0:42) trails and some sidewalks or some crossings, things to make pedestrians and (0:47) bicyclists feel safer when they’re getting around the community, as well as (0:51) to provide kind of these key connections.

And so some of the routes that we’ve (0:55) been looking at is to include a trail all along Allred, kind of west of the (1:00) airport, as well as, you know, connecting the schools, specifically the high school (1:04) that’s on Swift Creek, the middle school that’s on Kington Burden, and Warrior Way (1:08) that connects them. All of those corridors we’ve identified for new (1:13) trails. And the trails that we’re planning are about a 10 or 12 foot (1:17) paved path next to the road, very similar to what we already have in a (1:22) couple places, like on 89 from the Kodiak.

People are using that. They are, yeah, people are out there. (1:29) There’s another one here in Afton that’s kind of like up in community, like just (1:34) off of Swift Creek by the elementary, there’s a trail.

So it’s that type of (1:38) thing. It’s just a paved trail adjacent to the roadway where people can walk and (1:41) bike safely. You found success in other communities with these types of projects? (1:45) Yeah, in fact, you know, Teton County and Jackson and Wilson are building lots of (1:50) these things all over.

They’re building new ones in Pinedale and (1:54) Casper. They all have gotten new funding for trails, Rock Springs as well, where (1:58) they’re putting more of these off-corridor, separated, safe, comfortable (2:01) trails that, you know, families can walk on, parents can push strollers and walk (2:05) dogs and really, you know, get out there and enjoy the outdoors within their (2:09) community. What do communities do when they have long winters? They just plan to (2:15) clear those or work through the winter with them? How do we address that? Yeah, (2:19) that ends up being difficult.

I will say some of the obstacles that people think (2:23) of when you’re looking at planning trails is how do we maintain them, (2:26) specifically about snow removal. And in certain areas, we do a better job of that. (2:31) The trails in Jackson are oftentimes kept clean and you’ll see cyclists out (2:35) there on fat tire bikes like all winter long.

Because they just don’t stop (2:39) recreating. Yeah, those people are just out there enjoying it. And so in other (2:43) areas, I will say that that it’s more difficult.

We have other mountain towns (2:46) where, you know, that we don’t plow those trails and, you know, it’s (2:50) really kind of, you know, almost a seasonal use. But, you know, the trail we (2:54) have here on 89 does get plowed and people can go and walk on it throughout (2:58) the winter months. It really kind of comes down to, you know, if the community, (3:03) in that particular case, our trail here, South Afton, is maintained by the county (3:07) and so they’ve kind of committed to keeping it clear.

But it takes kind of (3:10) that commitment to make sure that those trails stay clear. Where do we (3:14) go from here? How do we fund it? How do we do it? Yeah, now that we’ve kind of (3:17) put together a plan and you guys can go look at the plan if you go to (3:23) uppervalleytap.com. You can go look at the plan on the home page. You can (3:28) scroll down and click on a map that shows the detailed layouts.

We identified (3:32) 81 miles of potential trails and then 16 miles of that was prioritized as like (3:39) the best benefit, the most urgent. And those ones we did concepts. So you can go (3:44) in there, you can zoom in, you can see the concept of like, is the trail on the (3:47) east side of the road or the west side? How does it impact driveways? What does it look (3:50) like in terms of separation from the road? So you can go to uppervalleytap.com (3:54) and take a look at it.

In terms of next steps, both the county, the town of Afton (4:00) and others are looking at ways to kind of advance this. We put together (4:04) a plan. We try to do concepts that are detailed enough that we can kind of like (4:07) work through them.

We included cost estimates so we know a ballpark of like (4:13) this will be two million dollars, this will be three million dollars, so that you (4:17) can go out and apply for, you know, whiteout grants or look to kind of get (4:21) these funds and kind of like move them forward. In the case of one on (4:26) Warrior Way, it’s also going to be developers are going to help. So right by (4:31) Rulon Gardner, there’s a section that’s going to be developed in the housing (4:34) subdivision.

Yes, that’s right. And as part of that new housing subdivision, (4:37) they’re going to do the setback and put in the sidewalk and things and so those (4:41) things also help. Very good.

Thomas Murtry, Avenue Consultants, (4:46) Dan Dockstead, RSVI Media.