Looking toward the trailhead that leads from the Cochran House parking lot are overreaching trees that throw shadows across the recently resurfaced access road incorporated into a trail system through Fairfield Hills. —Bee Photos, Bobowick
Freshly resurfaced and smooth new blacktopped trails in Fairfield Hills are made for walking, jogging, or bicycling, but not driving, as John Reed noted last week.
"We have vehicles going up there," he told fellow Fairfield Hills Authority members last Wednesday.
Despite the fresh blacktop that public works had rolled out to repair older pavement, Mr Reed stressed, "That's for passive recreation and to have vehicles there is problematic." Shaking his head, he tried to understand why drivers would get on the resurfaced road/trail that is used only by service vehicles that need to reach water towers. "People are people, so they go up," he said.
So new that it was still throwing off heat November 12, the charcoal black asphalt strip, roughly eight feet wide, now covers the older and crumbling surface leading up into the high meadow from the cul-de-sac at the end of Mile Hill Road. Part of a larger trail system the authority envisions for the former state hospital campus, this recently repaved leg piggybacks on roads open only to crews that need to access the water towers. Although the "drivable roadway" exists, it is for maintenance, not the public, Highway Department head Fred Hurley explained.
Connecting resurfaced service roads leading from the cul-de-sac off Mile Hill Road and from the Cochran House parking area is a new stretch of handicap-grade surface that allows wheelchair access to recreational trails in Fairfield Hills crossing through the meadows.
"People were driving around and one car was even in the meadow," he said. "That's not the purpose." With a warning, he said, "We don't want [the public] to think it's a highway." The trail loops toward the campus's opposite side to Cochran House and a parking area that sits off of Mile Hill South. Unlike before, Mr Hurley said, "There is now access to the trail head and people can park and do the trail."
To keep the trails car-free, highway department staff will place boulders, for example, around an existing gate near the cul-de-sac, and establish gates near the Cochran entrance. This phase of resurfacing is now complete, with peripheral work ongoing. Asphalt sidewalks are still taking shape, and certain drop-offs need to be filled. Finish landscaping will happen in the spring, Mr Hurley said.
The maintenance road/trail that open to all residents is a welcoming, smooth surface for strollers, roller blades, wheel chairs, or bicycles. So far, the trail has been a popular place. "Crews were flabbergasted at how many people were going in," Mr Hurley said.