New Connection
Over the last decade, the City of Fayetteville has developed a successful trails program, which has become very popular with recreational users and citizens who use it for their primary transportation. For years, the Frisco Trail system ended north of a congested Highway 180—the south boundary of the University of Arkansas campus—cutting off citizens who reside in that area from the trail and isolating one the City's largest and most utilized parks, Walker Park.
In order to make the connection, Garver designed a tunnel crossing under Highway 180 without stopping traffic, three creek crossings that contained FEMA-designated floodplains, and an at-grade crossing of a fivelane arterial highway.
"The City needed to connect those residents with the park and the university, and they needed to do something about the congestion on the roads," said Senior Project Manager Ron Petrie. "The Frisco Trail solves that problem in a way that benefits the overall health of the City as it pushes people to ride their bikes and walk to their destinations rather than drive."
This $1.4 million project has opened up areas of the City to developers, who see the trail system as an amenity that helps make their development more desirable for future buyers or renters, whether that's students biking to class, or commercial businesses that cater directly to the trail's users.
"People think of huge bridge projects when they think of Garver—and they should," Petrie said, "but they should also know we have the capabilities to design something like a trail system, and as a bicycle-friendly business, we can put our hearts behind a project like this.
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