Mayor: Full recovery for damaged Holmes Run Trail set for late 2024

The Holmes Run Trail has been incomplete and partially inaccessible since floods in 2018 and 2019 badly damaged it, and in a recent update Mayor Justin Wilson said some of the final pieces of that recovery might not be finished until the summer or fall of 2024.

That’s not to say there isn’t progress being made on trail recovery, with other phases completed earlier this year and a bridge replacement planned for later this winter.

In a community newsletter released this morning, Wilson said the next big improvement will be the restoration of the Holmes Run Trail Bridge at 4600 Duke Street.

With pandemic delays behind us and budget available, the City is now working to bring this trail back to our residents. The work has been divided into a few phases. The first phase of work is the restoration of the Holmes Run Trail Bridge at 4600 Duke Street. The demolition of the current bridge was completed a year ago, and the stabilization of the bank completed earlier this year. The full replacement is now anticipated to occur this fall into winter.

Other, more extensive recovery work, however, is still in the design phase.

“The more extensive phase of work involves the trail restoration at Dora Kelly Park, the trail restoration at the Morgan Street cul-de-sac and the trail restoration at North Ripley Street,” Wilson wrote. “The design work is under way and is expected to be complete early next year.”

If the design is completed in early 2023, Wilson said construction would start in summer/fall 2023 and is expected to take a year; completed in summer/fall of 2024.

“It has been frustrating to have the trail unavailable for so long,” Wilson wrote, “but we’re working to build a more resilient trail to benefit our community for generations to come!”