Just as the summer tourist season kicks into gear, a popular section of the Animas River Trail is shutting down for the rest of the year, city officials said Monday.
The 3,640-foot section of trail from Nature’s Oasis Natural Foods Market to Durango Harley-Davidson will be closed sometime this week, possibly Wednesday or Thursday, to allow for reconstruction and repaving.
Trail walkers on Monday were surprised to find orange barrels and closure signs already set up.
“During the summer? School just got out,” Tauni Gosche said incredulously.
The trail just became contiguous for seven miles a year ago with the completion of a corner section around Durango Mall.
Scott McClain, the city’s landscape architect, said officials wrestled with the timing of the repaving project, but decided it was best to get everything done all at once rather than having to come back to do another section next year.
The summer is the “best time to get it done. It’s challenging to get the concrete work done in the wintertime,” McClain said.
Kennebec Construction will repave this older section of trail that’s believed to date back to the 1980s.
The roots of cottonwood trees along the river have pushed up and damaged the trail.
“It’s in pretty bad shape with the cracks,” McClain said.
The $1.2 million project will be paid with money generated by a half-cent sales tax voters approved for parks and recreation projects.
Detour signs will reroute the public to the frontage road along U.S. Highway 550/South Camino del Rio.
Kathy Pannell, who was walking her dogs Jake and Spike, said she understood.
“It’s just like our highways,” Pannell said. “It needs the maintenance.”
Businesspeople also were sympathetic.
Matt Wilson owns 4 Corners Whitewater. His rafts get out of the river at Cundiff Park and the BMX track.
Wilson got an email from the city explaining the project and asking for his patience. He was assured his rafts still could get out of the water there.
“It’s going to be definitely inconvenient,” Wilson said.
But Wilson wants the project to get started, too.
“It’s really bumpy down there. You can wreck your bike. We’ve had (employees) crash hard down there,” Wilson said.
Tony Miely, managing partner of 4 Corners Riversports, which is the retail business at 360 Camino del Rio, said many of their whitewater customers shuttle by bike from their shop, meaning they ride home after their raft trip by bicycle.
Miely is eager to see the work get done, too.
“I will say I am excited to get it finished,” he said. “It’s been in bad shape for quite a while.”
jhaug@durangoherald.com
