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    Alum Creek Trail Closure Has Cyclists Scrambling to Find Safe Routes

    A key bridge along the Alum Creek Trail will close later this spring for repairs, shutting down a portion of the popular path for about two months.

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    Work on the bridge, which takes the trail over the creek near Champions Golf Course and the Pathways Park soccer fields on Sunbury Road, will begin on May 10, according to the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department.

    The department had originally sent out an email informing trail users that the bridge would be closed as soon as this week, but later moved that back. Spokesperson Kerry Francis said that the start date for the project was pushed to May because the work still needs to be approved by the Columbus Recreation Parks Commission and City Council.

    Francis explained that the bridge is currently safe for cyclists and pedestrians but can’t accommodate heavier vehicles, such as cars or ambulances.

    “It’s important that we schedule this project as quickly as possible to facilitate emergency access to the Alum Creek Trail at this section of the trail,” she said.

    The timing of the repair work, though, means that a key section of the trail will be blocked off during two of the busiest months of the year for ridership.

    Just as construction work along Cannon Drive has forced many Olentangy Trail users to alter their regular commutes or recreational rides, the Alum Creek Trail closure will require some major adjustments. And due to the location of the bridge that will be worked on – and the nature of the surrounding streets – there are few safe or direct alternative routes.

    Sunbury Road, which runs roughly parallel to the Alum Creek Trail south of the Easton area, is a two-lane road with heavy car traffic, blind curves, and little-to-no space on the side of the road for cyclists or walkers.

    The planned trail closure has inspired lots of discussion on the Bike Commuting in Columbus Facebook page, with some users recommending a route that uses neighborhood streets to connect up with the Olentangy Trail, although that one is complicated, requiring over 25 different turns to complete. Many posters expressed concern about the prospect of traveling by bike on either Sunbury or Westerville Roads.

    The Downtown Connector Trail, which connects the Alum Creek Trail to Downtown and the Olentangy and Scioto Trails, is currently closed for resurfacing and is not scheduled to reopen until early June.

    “The Central Ohio Greenways trail system is wonderful; it is truly a gem for our community,” said Harvey Miller, Ohio State Professor and Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis. “It is understandable that it requires occasional closures for maintenance.”

    “The problem is the lack of on-street bicycle infrastructure,” he added. “These trails are often the only safe passage through that part of the city. If we had good on-street bicycle infrastructure, safe detours around these closures would be possible. But we have no redundancy or resilience in our bike infrastructure. One small closure shuts everything down. It is a highly brittle system.”

    The closing of the bridge will have an impact that extends well beyond local residents.

    Miller notes that the Alum Creek trail is a “critical link” in the Ohio to Erie Trail, and that “people are coming from all over the US and the world to ride [that] trail system..which will be closed during prime bike tourism season.”

    The impact on Ohio to Erie Trail through-bikers is a big concern for Jody Dzuranin, Executive Director of the Ohio to Erie Trail Fund, who has worked to put together an extensive list of possible work-arounds and alternative routes (scroll down for the latest updates). In addition to detours that utilize other area trails, one of the suggested strategies is to hop on a bus to get from one section of the Alum Creek Trail to the other.

    Although the organization doesn’t have exact numbers on how many riders complete the Ohio to Erie trail each year, it does track several other metrics that paint a picture of its popularity. The group sells about 1,200 maps of the route per year (with about half of those purchased by out-of-state residents), according to Dzuranin, and over the last four years the organization’s interactive online trail map has received nearly a million page views.

    “There is a gentleman that lives in Japan who attended our January webinar and he emailed that he plans to spend four weeks riding Ohio’s trails in May and June,” she added.

    The Ohio to Erie Trail Fund also tracks organized group tours of the trail, with 17 tours being planned for 2023 so far, led by eight different operators.

    “It’s unfortunate we don’t have redundancy for bicycling and walking in the Easton area,” Dzuranin said.

    For more information, see columbus.gov, and click here for the exact location of the bridge that will close on May 10.

    Another view of the bridge – Photo by Brent Warren.
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    Brent Warren
    Brent Warrenhttps://columbusunderground.com/author/brent-warren
    Brent Warren is a staff reporter for Columbus Underground covering urban development, transportation, city planning, neighborhoods, and other related topics. He grew up in Grandview Heights, lives in the University District and studied City and Regional Planning at OSU.
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