Bumpy path to bike trail finish

Harbor Springs

Drainage near golf course remains final hurdle to bringing non-motorized trail into town

By Charles O’Neill
Harbor Light Newspaper

Progress on bringing a paved, nonmotorized trail into Harbor Springs along the north side of M-119 continues to hit bumps along the way. The latest challenge, according to HARBOR, Inc executive director Danna Widmar, is the stretch along the Wequetonsing Golf Course.

While problems with private property easements were tackled east of that stretch, the Weque section remains a problem due to water drainage and the Michigan Department of Transportation’s unwillingness to pipe that water under the roadway, for now, said Widmar.

Widmar said surveyors from the design firm WadeTrim may be out soon trying to determine how much of the road right-of-way along the golf course can be filled in and drainage handled with a catch and filter system on the north side of the highway. Passers-by know that the right-of-way seems to be a cattailfilled wet area most of the summer season.

Explaining the situation, Widmar said the best solution would seem to be piping water run-off under the roadway and letting it follow its natural course. MDOT is unwilling to make that move until they have secured permission from property owners on the other side of the highway, she said.

“Basically, we are now left with determining how best to handle run-off from the golf course when we fill in that right-of-way next to the highway,” Widmar said. “You may see surveyors out soon and they are trying to establish how far we can fill in and catch water in the worst-case, 100-year storm scenario.”

Given that MDOT has rejected piping the water run-off under the road, for now, Widmar said the only alternative to completing the trail in 2009 is to figure out how to deal with the water on the north side of the highway. That would involve a drainage system that would include a series of pipes: one to catch the silt, the rest to filter the water into the sand bed below – and that would involve boring to determine a deep enough sand drainage bed. And that means more drilling, more cost, and more time.

Time is something that is slipping away if a trail is to be built this coming year, and with funding secured for next year, yet murky at best for future years, Widmar said the time to act is now.

“We are basically at the point that if we can’t solve the Weque section by April, we are going ahead and building a trail without the section along the golf course,” Widmar said.

The first and foremost challenge is engineering the catch-basin system, she said. The cost for that will need to be shouldered either by Little Traverse Township or by the non-profit organization HARBOR, Inc., which has already held fundraisers, applied for numerous grants and basically promoted the completion of the trail through local governments. Little Traverse Township has also taken a leadership role in the project, headed by township supervisor Bill Dohm.

Funding for construction of any drainage catch-basin would be part of MDOT’s overall construction commitment, Widmar said, if they agree to the design. Engineering costs, however, will have to be covered locally.

Widmar, sounding frustrated but focused, said dealing with the Michigan Department of Transportation is challenging.

“You constantly get ‘No’ for an answer,” she said. “It is difficult to work with the system. But our approach is that the immediate solution should be better than the situation is currently today and that they should be programming the ultimately correct solution into their future planning.”

For more information on the efforts by HARBOR, Inc. or to contribute to their trail project, contact Danna Widmar, executive director, 231- 526-5060 or www.harborinc.org.

This is part of the December 24, 2008 online edition of Harbor Light Newspaper.

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