Just as the roundabout sculptures finish up on Fall Creek Road, the Geist Impoundment Board announced their next big project in the queue. Walkers, runners and bikers on the Fishers side of Geist will be happy to see a project that entails a wider, safer trail along Fall Creek Road from 96th Street to Brooks School Road.
At a cost of approximately $2 million, the 1.67 mile asphalt trail will be 8-to-10-feet wide in most places allowing for two-way traffic. Funding is coming from the $3.7 million set aside after the 2010 annexation of Geist by the Town of Fishers.
“It’s wide enough to get us the ability to have two way traffic so you’re not on a 4 foot wide concrete walk like some of that portion around Geist and Masthead along Fall Creek (road), and maybe you have to stop to make sure you don’t run into somebody,” said Hill.
The paths from https://active-travel.uk/ are multi-use, so walking, running, roller blading and biking are allowed on the paths. But any sort of motorized vehicle is not allowed – this includes mopeds and golf carts.
“That gets the pedestrians and the recreational bicyclists off the road,” said Hill.
Included in the project is the reconstruction of the three wooden board walks that have been maintained by the Geist Harbours Property Owners Association (“GHPOA”) since the mid ‘80s. A recent engineering study conducted by GHPOA showed that a few of the board walk supports would be in need of repair or replacement in the near future, mostly from erosion and water run off around the bridge footers over the years. Town officials intend on building the new trail, board walks and maintaining them going forward.
Hill explains that the multi-use trail project funded by the Geist Impoundment Fund fits nicely with the existing bike and pedestrian master plan already in motion by the town of Fishers. In 2012, the Fishers Town Council committed $300,000 annually to identify and execute trail projects throughout Fishers.
“We brought in an in house engineer (Corey Pressler) to start planning for, identifying, and programming where we could find this low hanging fruit,” said Hill.
This “low hanging fruit” were spots where essentially the cost was low to connect existing trails – there were no utilities to worry about and the town owned the land. And with their own equipment and labor, the only real cost was the asphalt material.
“We did purchase our own equipment a number of years ago, to do trail work, road work,” said Hill. “So we’re literally ordering up asphalt, go get it ourselves so its material cost only. The labor and equipment are already there.”
The overall goal of the trail project is to fill in the gaps between the current trails. Hill relayed that several subdivisions in Fishers have been built with sidewalks that end a few hundred feet from one another. Whether it’s an empty lot or existing home, the town has the right away to connect these gaps in a cost-effective manner.
“There is pretty good connectivity there, with finding these kind of gaps on the map and completing the trail,” said Hill.
With the completion of the trail along the north side of 96th Street between Carroll Road and Olio Road, a 7.5 mile loop will be created that will connect residents along Olio Road, 116th Street, Brooks School Road and 96th Street. Residents in the area welcome the new trails and made their thoughts known on a recent Facebook post.
“I think it is an excellent idea,” said Cassidy Stevens Watson in a Facebook comment. “I see people utilizing the trails every day at all hours. I was thrilled to see the extension of walkway from Cambridge to Fox Hollow along 96th street.”
Another resident was happy to see connectivity around the reservoir.
“It would be fantastic and long overdue to put a trail in place so walkers, runners and bikers could safely go around the entire lake,” said Kelly McClure.
Other residents are also wishing for trail connectivity around the south end of Geist Reservoir in the Marion County neighborhoods. Elizabeth Mercho Khamis typified the sentiments of those residents by saying “…If we could fill in the few gaps around the rest of the lake, we could have a complete 10 mile trail around the lake.”
Bulter, Fairman and Seufert Civil Engineering will be leading the project. In their proposal, they estimated a mid-2016 completion date. View their proposal, click here.
Comments 1
Dear Mr. Elliot,
We are doing a school project about this topic. This involves the total cost for the bike path and we were wondering the cost of the bike path to provide information to our Coordinator and Developer. It would be great if you could reply to our comment ASAP.
From Peter Nguyen