In a City Council meeting earlier this week, City Council member Kirk McPike reported that portions of the Holmes Run Trail won’t be fixed until 2026 — eight years after they were damaged by a storm.
In 2022, Mayor Justin Wilson said it was frustrating that some of the final pieces of the recovery wouldn’t be finished until 2024. The new timeline places final repairs two years later.
The damage to the trail is separated into four sites. One of those, the bridge at 4600 Duke Street, has already been repaired.
Two other sites, the bridge at the Morgan Street cul-de-sac and the trail at North Ripley Street, are still on track to be completed by this fall.
The main delay is for Site 1: Holmes Run Trail at Dora Kelly Park
“Due to a lot of design and procurement issues, it is not slated to be complete until early 2026,” McPike reported.
The project has experienced multiple delays with blame regularly put on ‘delay in supply chain issues.’
According to the project website, damage that appears superficial has created significant erosion problems.
While some of the damage may appear superficial, the 2018 and 2019 flood events completely undermined the trail base and caused significant erosion around the trail. The flooding also undermined the structural integrity of the two bridges. The City will need to study how the flood impacted Holmes Run and determine how the trail, bridges, and slopes should be modified/stabilized to minimize potential damage from future flood events.