The Animas River Trail is not the only major pedestrian/bike throroughfare taking shape within city limits. With the passage of the $14.5 million Florida Road expansion bond last November, city engineers and planners are working on incorporating bike lanes in both directions as well as a 10-foot wide, hard-surface sidewalk along the 2-mile stretch of road along the well-traveled stretch of road. The bike lanes and sidewalk will stretch from the E. Third Avenue intersection to East Animas Road.

City engineer Gregg Boysons said the bike lanes will be concrete to avoid the seam between concrete and asphalt that can trip up skinny tires. The sidewalk will

run parallel to the road to the north, (also known as the west or or river side) to take advantage of solar gain and help snow and ice melt quicker.

As far as the dreaded E. Third-15th Street intersection , Boyson said plans for a roundabout or traffic light were abandoned due to space and gradient constraints. “If cars were was backed up on 15th Street in the winter, they’d never get going again.” Instead the intersection will be graded to increase visibility and rasied traffic islands will be installed to give pedestrians “refuge” while crossing.

Preliminary work on Florida Road has already begun with construction to begin in earnest in spring 2010.

– Missy Votel