Bill Dyer from the Trails Committee was out with Dan and Dave Landscaping today putting a fresh topping layer on the RecPath at Lane St and Wesley Drive.
That portion of the Shelton Lakes Recreation Path provided a temporary detour when the Lane Street Bridge was replaced. When the temporary paving was removed earlier this year, the underlying crushed stone was firm, but too coarse for bicycle and other traffic. Dan and Dave placed a 10 foot wide swath of crushed stone that is smaller than 3/8's of an inch in diameter to be a finer surface course for the RecPath.
This was about 450 linear feet of RecPath along the Lane St. Fire Access Drive. The finished section ties back into the RecPath by the stone wall.
The fine surface layer is a little soft now, but a lot of people were still using it today. The Shelton Highways and Bridges Department will come out and roll the fine stone with one of their rollers in the near future. The resulting path will be smoother and easier for all users; including bikes, baby strollers and wheelchairs. Wood chips may be placed along the sides.
It was a very pretty early Fall picture along that portion of the Recreation Path.
That portion of the RecPath also includes Shelton's Famous Chestnut Tree that you may have seen in the papers recently.
Thanks to the Shelton Conservation Commission for authorizing these improvements, Dan & Dave for doing a nice job, and Bill Dyer for organizing everything.
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Thank you for getting the softer underfoot done. Really appreciated. Betsy Miller, and Bailey
ReplyDeleteI wonder why they didn't just leave the brand new pavement. Seems like a lot of money for nothing.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Shelton Conservation Commission asked residents which type of surface they preferred in 1999-2002 back when the first sections of the RecPath were being built. One very early section by the High School/Intermediate School was paved. Most users preferred the crushed stone over bituminous pavement. Each section of the RecPath that was built since then has had a processed stone surface, and the Lane St. section received temporary pavement because it was part of a DOT-financed detour for the bridge project. That temporary paved section was restored a processed stone surface rather than left as paved in order to match the other sections and maintain a rustic character for the RecPath. Each type of surface has it's pluses and minuses, but unless there's a big public outcry for paving the entire RecPath, it will probably stay processed stone. That may change over time depending on public demand. It's a reasonable question, but that's why the RecPath was restored to a processed stone surface now.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the "brand new pavement" was a very thin, temporary layer of asphalt that would just have broken into pieces right away.
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