Thanks to a slice of gas tax funds and collaboration among public bodies, Pierce County’s newest section of bike and walking trail had its ribbon-cutting on the last day of National Bike Month.
On May 31, Tacoma City Councilmember Marty Campbell took the big ceremonial shears to a red ribbon then took a hike along the trail bordering Salishan and Swan Creek Park from East 48th Street to First Creek Middle School at East 56th Street.
It’s another in a string of small victories for bicyclists who imagine the day when they can ride a complete trail system from Mount Rainier to Point Defiance, Pierce County Councilmember Rick Talbert told the crowd of about 40.
“This is a segment of a network that will connect us and allow our citizens to have options about how they get around,” Talbert said.
Foothills Trail champion Ernie Bay, on his bicycle, was there to celebrate the new segment that he hopes will one day connect to the 25-mile path he helped develop near Orting.
If Bay, who has worked on the project for decades, had his way, the trail would be done yesterday. Instead, it will take years, maybe more decades, of struggling over money and property.
“There is no way we could ever amass enough money to do it all at one time,” Talbert said. “The users of this become the advocates for the completion. We need people to come to the elected leaders and ask for connections.”
On the bright side, the new stretch makes a safe connection for Salishan’s children.
“There are 1,000 children in Salishan rentals,” Campbell said. “This gives them safe passage to First Creek Middle School.”
That school, with its playfields, programs and gym, is a recreation and community destination for the East Side. Before the trail, the route to it from Salishan and the apartments across the street was along Portland Avenue. Now there’s a traffic-free alternative.
Bryan Flint, executive director of the Greater Metro Parks Foundation, added that the trail will welcome people to Swan Creek Park.
“Swan Creek Park is an incredible asset. It will be the next Point Defiance, with trails, orchards, community gardens and, this summer, a mountain bike course built and maintained by Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance,” he said. “They did the one under the freeway.”
That would be the mountain bike park under Interstate 5 in Seattle.
Swan Creek’s mountain bike trail will make it a regional destination, he predicted.
That use will help vaccinate the park against illegal activities, from encampments to off-road vehicles.
Campbell pointed to the boulders installed on the park’s 56th Street border. They’re spaced to make it inaccessible to three- and four-wheelers.
Campbell also got a chuckle from an adjacent road and sidewalk leading from Salishan to First Creek Middle School. The school and Tacoma Housing Authority segments don’t meet. They miss each other by a lane.
It’s a head-smacker this trail avoided, said Dana Brown of the City of Tacoma.
The city, Metro Parks, THA and the school district all collaborated on the project. Since THA was working on infrastructure for market-rate housing development, it prepared the roadbed for the path. The broad asphalt trail cost about $150,000, far less than it would have without collaboration, and far sooner.