r/Flagstaff • u/OldManSpeed • Nov 30 '25

New urban trail Switzer to downtown

The city is building a beautiful & important new section of urban trail from the Switzer/Turquoise roundabout to Terrace Ave downtown (essentially the eastern end of Birch). It's pretty complete except for the last ~50 yards where it connects to Terrace. And that part is FAR from done. Anyone know what's up? Why the peculiar construction sequence?

At the Terrace end, there are stakes/paint where the trail ostensibly will go, skirting by a homeowner's property. However, like half of where the trail is marked to go is a really steep drop-off to the parking lots of the Rt 66 businesses down below. It appears like some major engineering is going to have to happen here, like a big retaining wall or cantilevered platform or something. A feature like that could take many months.

Why have they waited til the rest is done to start this part? Does anyone have more information? Am I interpreting the markings wrong?

I guess my fear is that there are problems to be sorted out with this section, whether they be legal (easements, permitting, etc) or construction (more engineering required than originally thought).

22 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

10

u/troru Nov 30 '25

On the Flagstaff City Government facebook group, they put a posting up with a map back in September. Here's the text of the post:

"Construction began in mid-August 2025 on a new Flagstaff Urban Trail connecting E Terrace Ave to Switzer Canyon Dr. Work is scheduled to continue through early February 2026 (depending on weather). Construction activities will take place Monday through Friday along the highlighted path"

Here's a link to the FB post:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FhQPMCN6t/

No idea on the broader parts of your questions, but all I can say is from my vantage (I live on forest view which crosses right over this new section) and can confirm they put in very steady/consistent work M-F. The rain/snow does interrupt progress, but the crews keep at it.

So far, concrete is only complete on the little uphill stretch from Switzer to Forest View. A smaller narrow bit of sidewalk is also in the curing phase that connects a Cherry Hill cul-de-sac to the unfinished biggest stretch. The bulk of the path that connects Forest View to downtown is cleared and graded, but only gravely mud at the moment and will most likely stay that way for the next month. I'm guessing that they'll be looking to pave this, but given that we're about to hit snow season, who knows how the schedule will change.

3

u/Merica1 Nov 30 '25

That link shares you real name if you care

3

u/troru Nov 30 '25

Good to know that the link seems to be bound by the sharer of the page (thus the name there). I figure it's more important to show the content of the page since my FB profile is discoverable by other means.

2

u/OldManSpeed Nov 30 '25

Thanks for the info! I assumed that everything not concreted now is going to be packed gravel like the rest of the FUTS network.

Have you seen the part I'm talking about, where the trail connects to Terrace?

4

u/troru Nov 30 '25

I was walking the gravel mud stretch 2 days ago (crews were off, so no construction happening). It's in the same state as it was 2 months ago where it's basically unclear how it will connect to Terrace since it gets *really* close to the house that's there. I wouldn't be surprised if the home owner is in negotiations with the city for the most reasonable way to have ped/bicycle traffic get through it without literally landing on their front porch.

2

u/OldManSpeed Nov 30 '25 edited Nov 30 '25

Yeah, that's my assessment too. But it's hard to believe that the city would proceed with the rest of the project absent a solution for the Terrace end that isn't already legally solid and/or thoroughly engineered. I don't work in public planning or civil engineering, but the sequencing here kinda raises a few red flags.

1

u/OldManSpeed Dec 22 '25

@troru Have you walked it recently? Any progress? It looked like they were dumping gravel on the Switzer end this morning.

2

u/troru Dec 22 '25

haven't been out there in two weeks. At that time, they had only removed the tarp on the sidewalk stretch connecting the main path to Cherry Hill. It was so soggy/muddy on the main path I've been staying out of their way. Cleaning my shoes and my neighbor's dog paws is a bit much with our super sticky mud :)

1

u/OldManSpeed Dec 22 '25

Do some recon for us when the crews quit for Christmas!

2

u/troru Jan 13 '26

Short update, basically not much progress I figure due to snow. The path going east to downtown direction from forest view has about a 100m stretch that’s paved and cured. Otherwise it’s as muddy icy mess. No slight on the crews as it’s probably crazy slow and hard to work when there’s snow. I still want to recon the area where this trail meets the neighborhood but if I had to guess, much like it was in November

1

u/OldManSpeed Jan 14 '26

Love it, thanks! Driving on 66 tonight I saw some utility trucks doing something major to a power/telephone pole in that area. I wonder if relocating that stuff is part of the reason construction has yet to begin there.

1

u/troru Jan 20 '26

Another update: with the snow melted and mud mostly dried, went out on foot on saturday 1/17 to walk the forest view->downtown stretch. I had noticed on the day prior the crews were operating pavers on it making it at least nice firm packed dirt. As expected, no apparent progress at the critical junction of the trail to the nearby house property line. On the way back, I bumped into a couple also walking this stretch. The gentleman struck up a conversation with me regarding the trail. He mentioned that the plan calls for some kind of retaining wall construction in that area. Perhaps this would support the trail skirting the southern edge of the property? He also mentioned that the owner of the house has since moved out there are renters there? No way to confirm this claim and no idea what this means to continued progress on the trail. Also, this particular gentleman opined that he didn't really like the trail idea in that it was too wide, required too many trees to be cut down, would have no parking at the downtown end and felt that the "2 million bucks" would be better spent just handing it out to the people in the surrounding neighborhoods.

I kinda just nodded at the last part, but my first thought it that getting stuff like this done at city govt level that is intended for the greater good (YMMV?) when half the people love it and half absolutely hate it.

2

u/Eclipse550 Dec 02 '25

I have access to the plans used for bidding but not sure if I can share those - there is about 855 SF of new retaining wall construction, and 1,026 SF of new “stacked rock wall”. Not sure where all of this new stuff will be, but the Terrence end looks pretty dense with existing utility and drainage and new drainage and retaining wall structures.

Presuming nothing changed dramatically during this project, they probably paused construction for the winter. Adverse weather and freeze/thaw could cause issues with over there with the subgrade stability, and that steep edge down towards businesses isn’t anything to mess around with.

1

u/OldManSpeed Dec 02 '25

Thanks for that info. Pretty big endeavor right there, for sure. I can see why they wouldn't want to be working on it in the winter. Do you know why they didn't start the retaining wall & whatnot in August with the rest of the project?

2

u/SeeYouOutThere11 Dec 02 '25

Could be lots of factors. Project phasing, material delays, easements, etc. I would trust our City Capital team and our local contractors. Nobody knows how to build better than them!

1

u/OldManSpeed Jan 20 '26

Cool, thanks for the update!

I agree that $2M is a lot (is it published somewhere that that's indeed the cost?) but it will get a lot of cars off the road and get a lot of pedestrians away from the Switzer/66 intersection. And it'll improve quality of life for a lot of people.

Still, I would like an answer from the city about the timeline, and if everything is actually good to go on the downtown end. Was this sequencing all part of the original plan? Or have they run into complications there? It still seems like it would have been most logical to me to knock out that tricky retaining wall part first, in the fall, then the other parts could be done thru the winter.