There have been heavy equipment and tons of dirt, earth and rock moved in recent weeks along the walking trail at Bridgeport City Park. And because of that, a portion of it has been closed to the public.

 

Now, thanks to some creative thinking, not only is the trail open but the reason for its closure has been fixed. Local contractor Lobec Inc. teamed up with Bridgeport Parks and Recreation workers to fix a substantial slip along the trail between Virginia Avenue and City Park itself.

 

“The slip has been there from a little more than a year and a half,” said P&R Director Joe Shuttleworth. “Other than during this phase, the trail has remained open.

 

“We did have the slip area fenced off so no one could trip or fall because it was within six inches of the trail,” said Shuttleworth. “Safety was an issue and another issue that we have is a water line that feeds City Park that runs down the trail. We’ve definitely been keeping an eye on it because of the safety and that water line.”

 

Initially, the thought was to have the project done entirely by a contractor. However, that became an issue that needed a creative solution.

 

“The contractors didn’t want to deal with tearing up the walking trail and when it went out to bid that became an issue. They actually wanted to come across (Simpson) Creek with earthen bridges,” said Shuttleworth. “Needless to say, it quickly went past our budget that was in place by our own design people.

 

“We were looking at it being in the range of $90, but the access issues pushed it well above that. We pulled the bid process and stopped it,” he continued. “Only had two vendors show up for the bid process one pulled out and the other was going to be two to three times the price because of the access issues that involved using an earthen bridge.”

 

The solution involved the city hauling in and out all the material needed in small dump trucks as to limit the damage to the trail and remove issues of access to the site and the probability of being responsible for damage to the walking trail needing repaired.

 

The move worked. The contractor was finishing up work on Monday and Shuttleworth said damage to the trail was minimal.

 

“We’ll eventually add in the cost of repairs to the trail, but the contract work was $24,000 along with having the cost of tying up a city crew and hauling in and out the excavated material while Lobec used a two-man crew running the equipment to fix the slip.”

 

The existing material was removed and replaced with riprap. The contractor, said Shuttleworth, also stabilized the bottom of the hill where it was washing away due to flood water and had impacted the toe of the bank.

 

While that’s the good news, there’s some bad news as well. Shuttleworth said another area on the same portion of the trail – about a quarter a mile away from the current slip – is showing signs of a major slip.

 

“We haven’t made any decision on that. It’s in the area across from the middle school,” said Shuttleworth. “We may do something similar, but as of now we’re in the exploratory phase of how to address it and the severity of it.”