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A project to extend the Permanente Creek Trail through Crittenden Middle School is moving forward on, as part of a larger project to revamp the Crittenden field.
The changes at Crittenden come as school officials construct new facilities at both of the Mountain View Whisman School District middle schools using Measure G bond money. To piggyback on those changes and save money on construction costs, the city of Mountain View has opted to foot the entire $1.5 million bill to construct an extension of the Permanente Creek Trail to Middlefield Road.
The proposal calls for the trail to continue along the creekside before diverging to meet with the Farley Street intersection. The trouble spot for the trail, which caused some problems in earlier designs, is on the north part of the campus. The trail has to squeeze through a narrow spot between school facilities and the creek, and the Santa Clara Valley Water District requires a 12-foot easement from the trail to allow for future creek improvements. While the trail is typically 10 feet wide with 2-foot shoulders on each side, a small portion of the trail will have to ditch the shoulders to fit.
A number of improvements will also be made at the intersection of Farley and Middlefield intersection to accommodate bicyclists coming off of the trail extension. The district will construct “sharrows” for bicyclists, the pedestrian crosswalk button will be modified, and the curb ramp onto Middlefield Road will be widened, according to the district’s agreement with the city.
The original estimates for the trail were pinned at $1 million, but because of escalating construction costs and additional costs related to building a creekside retaining wall for the trail, the price has increased to $1.5 million. The project will be paid for through the city’s Shoreline Community Fund as well as Park Land Dedication funds.
The Permanente Creek Trail extension will be constructed alongside big changes the Crittenden field. The district plans to replace both existing ball fields in favor of one new, smaller ball field, a 400-meter track and an artificial turf field. Construction is expected to start this summer, and is expected to be completed by the summer of 2017.
The loss of both full-sized baseball fields means only youth softball and baseball leagues will be able to play on the field, so the adult softball leagues that currently use the park will have to relocate to the new Shoreline Athletic Fields, according to a city staff report.
The school district estimates that the field upgrades will cost $6.2 million. The city has agreed to put down $1.3 million in park funds in order to pay for a portion of the costs, as part of the city’s continued shared-use agreement with the school district.
We are glad this bike path is finally getting extended into more residential neighborhoods. The north end of this bike path connects to Google and Shoreline Park, so this is a great route for commuters who want to avoid rush hour car traffic.
I do hope that the city can start enforcing the bike lanes on Middlefield Road if this is where the trail is going to end, though. Right now, there are so many cars parked in the bike lanes that it becomes a death trap for bicyclists.
Won’t the Shoreline fields be oversubscribed when McKelvey closes? Adult softball may not have any fields because Crittenden will be under construction and the water district didn’t find a temporary place for little league while they tear up McKelvey.
Isn’t this a great example of two government groups getting together on joint projects? I think the youth-size field at the school is not a major loss of adult softball. Don’t the adults have brand new fields out at the new city fields near Google and the Shoreline golf course? Does anyone know exactly or how many? Glad the city used the money in this way for both recreation and recreation/bike commuting. I think it makes MV a more livable environment.
Great to see this getting done! I hope to see the trail go all the way to Rengstorff Park / California Street in the coming years.
I agree with @Juan – extending the trail across Central Expressway to Rengstorff Park is a great idea. From there, families can use the bike lanes on California Ave to get to safely get to many other parts of town.
Extending the trail all the way to Rengstorff Park may not happen for a long time. Dealing with the right-of-way with the railroad is the problem, and an old one. It would require an expensive underpass like that found at the San Antonio station. At least there’s already a traffic light at Farley and Central Expressway for crossing the latter.
But I figure the city will take the cheap route and just send trail traffic up the existing paved pedestrian path alongside the expressway to Rengstorff, to cross there to reach the park.
The Stevens Creek Trail has a bridge over Central Expressway and the train tracks. I don’t remember the installation being very expensive or controversial.
Thank you to the city, school and water district for working out this tricky trail connection. Once this is built we’ll have a more direct, low-stress connection for bicycling and walking from the bay to the bike boulevard on Montecito. The current detour uses Sierra Vista has too much cut-through car traffic to be comfortable for many people who ride bikes, unlike Farley which has traffic calming. I can’t wait to use it.