Progress on North Lake Avenue Trail

Work is continuing on North Lake Avenue Trail, and the project is moving along fairly quickly. Pouring of the trail and the driveways along the trail is continuing today and is finished almost up to  East 16th Street. Along with pouring of concrete for the new trail, workers are also installing detectable and visible warnings near roads and driveways and building rain gardens along the trail.

A visible warning on the trail

A detectable warning along the trail

Today, workers built forms for this portion of the trail and began pouring concrete. The photo above shows workers manually spreading out the concrete and using a power screed to level the concrete. Below, workers are rounding the edges or the trail and using bull float to smooth the surface of the concrete.

Work Continues on the Trail

Crews are continuing work on North Lake Avenue Trail. On the north end of the trail, they are working to move a water line and create new manholes. Rain gardens will also be built in this area.

Here, a worker digs near the existing manhole and pipe line

On the south end of the project, the ground is prepared for pouring of the trail. Before pouring begins, workers must even out the dirt that they exposed when removing existing grass and concrete. The photo below shows workers leveling out the dirt inside of the forms that have been set for the trail and the driveways along the route.

After the dirt subgrade is leveled, a gravel subbase is laid, compacted, and evened out. In the photo below, this has been done and the trail that is ready to be poured.

Today, workers began pouring the trail. In the photo below, a screed levels the freshly poured concrete and helps workers find any holes in the concrete that need filled.

Here, workers use a wood plank as a screed.

After the concrete is leveled off with a screed, it is smoothed out with a bull float, shown in the photo above. Below, workers use edging tools to give the concrete a round edge, which helps reduce chipping. They also smooth any small imperfections in the concrete with hand floats.

The photo below shows a part of the trail that has been poured, smoothed, and had the forms removed. 

There is lots of construction on North Lake Avenue and reduced lanes for traffic to allow the contractor work safely.  Please reduce speeds and be on the lookout for turning traffic and construction crews.

Work has Started on North Lake Avenue Trail!

Crews have begun work on the North Lake Avenue Trail project. Last week, they started removing existing sidewalks, driveways, grass, and obstacles to create a path for the trail. The photos below show existing concrete and curbs being removed.

Existing sidewalk being removed

An area where a curb was removed to make room for a sloped path into the street

 Here, an obstacle was found while workers were digging and removing concrete. Lundell Construction called in MidAmerican Energy to help them remove what they think is an old streetlight base.

After removing all of the concrete, grass, and obstacles in the trail's path, workers will prepare the subgrade, or the dirt that will lay under the concrete. The subgrade will be compacted and smoothed to create a strong, even surface for the new trail. The photo below shows a subgrade that is somewhat evened out.

Here, the subgrade is partially evened out and the shape and path of the trail can be seen.

Drivers and pedestrians should use caution when traveling near the construction area and note that the west lane of North Lake Avenue is closed from West 10th Street to West 12th Street.

What's the Plan?

Thanks for the question on what to expect on the project!  To answer the question we decided to put up another blog post for the project.


The project starts on the south end at the intersection of 10th Street and Lake Avenue.  At this point the trail will be on the west side of Lake Avenue.  The finished project will have an 8 foot wide pedestrian and bike trail completed with visual warnings in the form of colored concrete marking the intersections with driveways and streets.  The intersections with streets will also have detectable warnings.


Here is the first page of the plan set showing part of the project. 

The page is a little difficult to read.  The page shows three sections of the trail starting at the top the beginning of the project at 10th Street and Lake.  The project runs south to north as you look across the page left to right.  Then the next section is below, again left to right.  Thus in the second section at the far right is the intersection of 12th Street and Lake Avenue.

At the intersection of 12th Street and Lake Avenue the trail will switch to the east side of the road where it will run the distance to C49.  Below is the second half of the plan sheets showing the project.

The project will stop on the north side of C49 until additional funding can be obtained to finish the project.

Construction Delay

The contractor on the project is delayed due to weather and other projects and as of today isn't expected to start until the week of July 6th.  Traffic control sub-contractor is expected to be onsite on Tuesday, July 7th and then the sub-contractor will start with removals on the south end of the project. 

Here we go!

The North Lake Avenue Trail Project is set to get underway this month pending weather of course!  The sub-contractor on the project who will be doing earth work and preparing the area for paving is currently scheduled to start work on their portion of the project around the 15th of June.

The project is expected to start on the south end and move north from the 10th Street intersection.  The majority of the work on this phase of the project will be on the west side of the road until we get to the intersection with 12th Street (the traffic lights by Fitzpatrick Motors).  At that point the intersection will get sidewalk on all corners of the intersection and the proceed north on the east side of the road.

Weather, of course, will impact the project timeline as we move forward.  The best method of knowing about the latest on this project is to keep up to date by following this blog.  When we post blog updates we will also post them to our Facebook page which you are encouraged to "LIKE" if you haven't already for updates on this project and other City events and news.