Construction starts on Suisun bike, pedestrian path
SUISUN CITY — Work has started on the bicycle and pedestrian path that will give Suisun City residents a safe way to walk along the south side of Highway 12 between Marina Boulevard and Grizzly Island Road.
“This will keep kids from having to cross Highway 12. It will also help with congestion and give people an opportunity to better interact with our nature in the Suisun Marsh wetlands,” Suisun City Vice Mayor Mike Hudson said during a Tuesday morning ceremony.
Once completed in mid-October, the city will have a 12-foot-wide concrete bicycle and pedestrian path a little less than a mile long on the south side of Highway 12, with entrances on Marina Boulevard and Grizzly Island Road. There is already a path on the north side of the highway.
It is part of the city’s plan to improve safety for children who need to get from their homes to either Crystal Middle School or Crescent Elementary School.
The project is being paid for with $900,000 from the state Safe Routes to School Program and $1.3 million from the Congestion Management Mitigation and Air Quality Program. The work will be done by Alaska-based Suulutaaq Inc., which was awarded the bid in May.
The trail will have educational interpretive signs on different aspects of the Suisun Marsh as well as an outdoor overlook area with concrete benches. There will also be school bus parking spaces at the trail end on Grizzly Island, so children can be dropped off and picked up from field trips to the marsh.
It is designed to complement the state Department of Fish and Game’s wetlands tidal reclamation project planned for the marsh area just south of the trail. The state plans to allow the tidal area to once again be flooded by the tides.
A new crosswalk with flashing beacons activated by push buttons, to alert motorists to pedestrians, will be put in at the intersection of Marina Boulevard and Lotz Way.
Suisun City plans to further expand the trail by eventually extending it west to the train station and park-and-ride lot next to Main Street. The city is looking for funding for this next phase.
There is also the possibility further in the future of extending it east to connect directly to Crescent Elementary School and south along Grizzly Island Road to the fishing bridge.
Ian Thompson, Daily Republic
