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The groundbreaking for the Santa Paula Branch Line Recreational Trail is set to begin and will provide a place to walk and ride from Peck Road to 12th Street. Left to right are: Ryan Anderson, construction manager; Peter DeHaan of the Ventura County Transportation Commission; Councilman Ralph Fernandez, Mayor Jim Tovias, Stratis Perros, Deputy Planning Director; City Manager Jamie Fontes; Planning Director Janna Minsk (photo by Debbie Johnson). |
Groundbreaking held for SP Branch Line Recreation Trail
October 29, 2010
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
It’s been in the works for years and the groundbreaking for the Santa Paula Branch Line Recreational Trail demonstrated work is set to begin on the project that will provide a place to walk and ride from Peck Road to 12th Street. The ceremonial groundbreaking for the project was held Wednesday near the historic Depot, where a nearby rest area and kiosk will be constructed with information on things to see and do in the downtown area.
The trail - which closely follows the railroad track line through the city - will cost about $4.1 million of grant funding and a $400,000 city match. The city had to meet a looming deadline in order not to lose the funding for the trail.
“We walk now in town,” said Mayor Jim Tovias of the already stroller friendly city, but the new trail will offer an opportunity for partnerships to promote better health. “I see getting together with Santa Paula Hospital and our Recreation Department” to create healthy walking programs.
Tovias said walks could also include city staff, who could answer questions, “make it a community event” to take a stroll. The trail, he noted, “is going to be a wonderful addition to the community, and bicyclists will have a safer area to ride through.”
City Manager Jaime Fontes said work is expected to start in a few weeks, and the trail will eventually join up with others in the Santa Clara River Valley.
Peter DeHaan of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, which owns the branch line and arranged the funding for the trail, said the trails in Piru and Fillmore are already completed. Eventually, when funding is secured, Ventura County will complete trails that will link up with the others, which, DeHaan said, will create a trail that eventually could reach from Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County to the east to the Montalvo area of Ventura to the west.
Ryan Anderson, construction manager of the trail who works for the city’s consultant Carolla Engineering, said the trail will be completed “in under a year.” Preliminary work is starting, and then construction will start mid- to late-November. Work on the project area near the Dean Drive location of the Ventura College East Campus will be coordinated to lessen impacts to students.
Fontes said the completion of the trail should fall in the same timeframe as the opening of the Ventura County Agricultural/Farm Museum, located at the historic Mill, which underwent its own ambitious rehabilitation with Ventura County Transportation Commission arranged funding. “The trail is the biggest combination of funding the city has ever seen,” Fontes noted.
“It’s going to be a good thing for the city,” said Anderson, “and it was a long time coming.”
“The trail is part of the recreational goals of the Santa Paula Branch Line Recreation Trail Master Plan created by the Ventura County Transportation Commission,” said Elisabeth Amador, assistant to the city manager. “Santa Paula’s 2.4-mile long bicycle/pedestrian trail will include a bikeway/walkway, fencing, landscaping, and public access points along the way.”
Amador noted grants totaling $4.1 million were garnered from Federal Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality, Federal Safe Route to Schools, Federal Transportation Enhancement, and State Transportation Development Act funding, supplemented by the city’s required $400,000 match. The project, Amador added, “Is expected to be completed by July 2011.
The effort to construct a trail through the Santa Clara River Valley actually started in 1993, and involved negotiations with property owners and growers along the unincorporated lengths of the route that were finalized in 2000.
