Jones Falls Trail Walk Through on a Snowy Morning
The first real snow of the year did not deter about twenty Mt. Washington residents from participating in a walk through of a small piece of our section of the planned Jones Falls Trail, known as Phase V. Once completed, the Jones Falls Trail will be a walking/hiking/biking path, extending for ten miles through Baltimore City along the Jones Falls river valley, connecting twenty neighborhoods with the Inner Harbor, Mt. Vernon, and Lake Roland. In Mt. Washington, the trail will run from Cylburn to the Village, covering a distance of two miles.
Saturday’s walk through was led by Gennady Schwartz, Chief of Engineering Services for the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks, hosted by the Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, and organized by David Conn, who chairs the Jones Falls Trail Committee of the Mt. Washington Improvement Association (MWIA).
After convening in the warmth of the Pediatric Hospital’s lobby, we headed out into the wet and heavy snowfall towards the woods. Mr. Schwartz led the group, which included MWIA board members and neighbors of all ages, including two children, to the corner of West Rogers Avenue and Wildwood Lane to start the walk. You can refer to the map below, which was generated by the GPS log from my iPhone, to see the path that we walked.
As we walked along West Rogers Avenue back towards the Pediatric Hospital, Schwartz discussed several issues related to that stretch of the trail. The trail will be eight feet wide along Rogers Avenue and will run adjacent to the current tree line. The existing sidewalk will be replaced by a strip of grass and trees, separating the road from the trail. According to Schwartz, the stakes with orange flags that are in the ground now were placed by a survey team and follow an initial computer-generated suggestion of the trail path, based primarily on topography. The trail will be ADA-compliant and cannot exceed a 5% grade at any point. The stakes will be moved to preserve existing trees, when possible. Schwartz indicated that all trees in the area of the trail that are one foot or greater in diameter will be marked and evaluated. The designers of the trail will make efforts to divert its path to avoid large healthy trees. We were shown an example of a large tree on Rogers Avenue that will be taken down to make room for the trail because it is not healthy.
As we approached the driveway of the Pediatric Hospital, we followed the tree line and entered the woods where the fitness trail starts. Schwartz mentioned that the builders would leave existing tree root systems intact and lay landscaping fabric and topsoil over them to avoid harming the trees. Once we entered the woods, we were shown examples of trees with stakes at the bottom, indicating that the computer had suggesting laying out the trail in that spot. We were then shown how the path of the trail would be adjusted to avoid the trees.
We wound our way through the woods following the marked stakes, which have been placed in a switchback pattern due to the extreme downward slope of the land. Even with the switchbacks, the grade still changes in excess of 5% across the eight foot width of the trail. Mr. Schwartz informed the group that instead of building retaining walls in each of these locations, the design now includes the use of boardwalks in certain sections. These boardwalks will help to reduce the environmental impact of the trail.
We then came to an area with an extreme erosion problem. We passed several fallen trees, uprooted as the soil keeping them stable had washed away. Mr. Schwartz explained that the current plan is to build a culvert with a stone face in this section. The boardwalk would then pick back up on the other side of the culvert.
We then wound our way toward the stream. There is currently a fallen tree trunk across the stream in the approximate location of where the trail will cross via a bridge and continue on towards Mt. Washington Village. The houses on Roxbury Place can clearly be seen from this vantage point. Due to the inclement weather, the walk through ended at the stream, so we turned around and headed back up the hill.
We reconvened in a conference room at the Pediatric Hospital for the remainder of the meeting and were greeted by hot chocolate (with marshmallows) and gingerbread men, generously provided by the Hospital. Mr. Schwartz then produced a series of drawings that showed plans for each section of the trail. He started with the page that showed the section that we had just walked. He indicated on the drawing the various features that he had discussed during our walk, such as the boardwalk and the culvert. He also reaffirmed that the City will build and maintain a public playground on the Pediatric Hospital’s property as a requirement of the Hospital granting an easement to the City for the trail. The Hospital will also provide enough land for the City to build eight to twelve parking spaces.
The discussion then turned to next steps. Mr. Schwartz explained that the survey should be complete soon and the final design will be ready in just a few months. The design will be presented to the neighborhood and to the State. Once the State approves the design, funding will be made available and contractors will bid on the project, with construction starting in the Spring of 2011. If all goes according to the current plan, construction will take eighteen months, putting a ribbon-cutting in the Fall of 2012.
The Department of Recreation and Parks estimates that Phase V of the project, which includes the Western Run section, will cost $7.2 million, a portion of which will come from federal matching funds.
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I’m already a huge fan of the Gwynns Falls Trail, and am waiting as patiently as possible for the completion of the Jones Falls. Thank you for the information about your walk through, it’s very interesting to learn these little details about how they plan the trail.