News Stories / Staffers Engineers Talk Trails

By  Terry Scmmida

The outline of a new and improved bike trail proposed for Aviation Boulevard was revealed to the public at a workshop hosted by Marathon Public Works Manager Carlos Solis on Sept. 23.
Also present at the meeting were Jose Acosta and Cristobal Betancourt of the Miami-based civil engineering firm Chen Moore & Associates.
The city is aims to “create a multi-use trail, similar to what we have on Sombrero Beach Road and the Coco Plum area . . . connected to the Overseas Heritage Trail,” Solis said during his opening remarks. “Basically, you’ll be able to get to any one of our beaches parks, almost anywhere in the community via a trail where you can ride, skateboard walk, however you may wish to do that, without having to get in their car to do so.”
The most significant problem facing the builders of the trail at the moment is that familiar Keys issue: limited space.
“Our biggest obstacle right now is existing utility poles along Aviation Boulevard,” Solis went on. “Our initial plan was to relocate those poles” to the other side of the airport fence, but objections from other government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, plus the projected $800,000 price tag may remove that option from consideration.
Instead, Solis said, workers will shift the existing road some 18 inches to the north to make room for a widened trail, and buffer zone between the two stretches.
He stressed, however, that the city would not need to expropriate anyone’s property to complete the shift, and that the plan would also provide an opportunity to reconstruct the parts of Aviation Boulevard that were due for an upgrade anyway.
When completed, Jose Acosta said, the trail will run about two miles in length, encompassing all of the boulevard, and returning to U.S. 1 at 107th Avenue.
The multi-million dollar project represents “a very nice continuation of some of the good work that’s been done on Sombrero and other places throughout the city,” he said.
The bike trail is one of a number of improvement projects planned for Marathon in the coming years.
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