A car travels west along East Drake Street in Fayetteville on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. (Flyer photo/Todd Gill)FAYETTEVILLE — The city has scheduled a public meeting to discuss the upcoming Drake Street trail connector project.
The session will be held from 4-6 p.m. on Thursday, May 30, at the Pendergraft Building located at 2828 N. Mansfield Ave. off Drake Street.
The new trail will provide a direct connection from North College Ave to the Razorback Greenway at Gordon Long Park, which city staff said will help connect nearly 2,000 residences and over 260 businesses to the local trail system.
City staff and representatives from design consultant Crafton Tull will be at the meeting to answer questions and accept feedback. Residents unable to attend can still participate by submitting comments through an online form available on the city’s project webpage until 4:30 p.m. on May 30.
The project is being partially funded by a bond approved by city residents in 2019, and is also supported by a $500,000 grant from the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
Matt Mihalevich, the city’s active transportation manager, said construction crews will use excess space in the 4-lane section of Drake Street to install a two-way protected trail that runs west before traveling through existing right of way and park land where Scull Creek Trail meets Gordon Long Park.
As part of the work, Drake Street will be reduced from four lanes to two lanes with either a continuous turn lane in the center or parallel parking on the south side. The final cross section is still to be determined based on public input, Mihalevich said.
Trail users will be separated from vehicles by a 6-inch-tall by 2-foot-wide concrete median with reflective posts, according to city documents. The street-level trail on Drake will transition to a 10-foot-wide concrete path at the street’s dead-end point en route to the park. The project will include construction of a 50-foot bridge across Scull Creek.
The City Council in November approved a $204,275 contract with Crafton, Tull & Associates for design of the project.
Completion of the work is estimated for late 2025.
Drake Street Trail
(City of Fayetteville)
