Village Begins Work on Rotary Park Multi-use Trail

The Bugline Trail paving project lately has garnered the attention of many local bikers, walkers, and any other trail users. However, the Bugline plan isn’t the only local project in the works that will make man-powered transportation a bit easier.

Surveying work has begun to chart the course of a new 10-foot-wide multi-use asphalt trail that will run along Fond Du Lac Avenue in Rotary Park and connect underneath the 124th Street interchange in Milwaukee.

The $900,000 project is part of the village’s 2012 capital improvements budget and should be completed next year. When finished, trail users will be able to walk, jog, or bike from Rotary Park in Menomonee Falls all the way to Dretzka Park in Milwaukee.

“The project was requested from some of the residents to improve safety for the users that walk out there,” said Engineering Director Tom Hoffman. “We studied it for a couple of years now, and we were finally able to move from the conceptual phase to putting the plan in motion.”

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Currently, there’s no walking path for walkers or bikers along Fond Du Lac Avenue in the portion of the village. Most walkers are simply using the shoulder of the road, which can be hazardous.

Hoffman said revenues generated from a taxing district that includes Briggs and Stratton as well as Actuant Corporation provided funding for the project.

Hoffman said they don’t have a map of the path charted yet. He said surveyors are plotting a course for the path that would minimize the number of trees and native vegetation that would be removed. The path will meander though the wooded areas along Fond Du Lac Avenue rather than provide a straight shot.

“We want to save as many trees and natural aesthetics as possible,” Hoffman said.

When the surveying work is complete this summer, the village will work through the necessary approvals for easements in winter and put shovels to the ground in 2013.