a gravel path
The Lee Gulch Trail is surfaced with crusher fines, a finely-crushed stone mix. Photo courtesy of Ned Sterne

Littleton resident Ned Sterne walks, runs or bikes on the Lee Gulch Trail almost every day. One of his favorite things about the path, he says, is the fact that it has a soft surface.

The trail is currently made out of a material called crusher fines, which is a “a finely-crushed stone mix that is often the byproduct of gravel operations,” according to American Trails, a national group dedicated to improving, protecting and raising awareness of trails.

“When I’ve talked to people about why I live in Littleton, one of the top reasons is the soft trail system,” Sterne said. “Granite fines are really an ideal surface to run and walk on.”

The soft-surface quality of a segment of the Lee Gulch Trail is up for question, however, as the South Suburban Parks and Recreation District considers a plan to put concrete over an approximately 2,200-foot section of the trail between Prince Street and the Mary Carter Greenway Trail.

Sterne says a soft surface makes the trail more comfortable to use, more natural and resistant to sheet ice. But in the district’s eyes, replacing this surface with concrete would reduce hazards, such as erosion and rutting, for trail users and would allow for better snow removal.

How we got here

South Suburban Director of Parks and Public Space Andy Jennings said the district launched a survey to gather community input after crews mistakenly started concreting a segment of the path in October without consulting the community.

“My biggest concern was the fact that we didn’t go out for public comment to begin with,” Jennings said. “The fact that we did pave a portion of that — changing the trail surface — without seeking input from the public.”

Maintenance crews from South Suburban started pouring concrete on a portion of the trail because the trail was becoming a maintenance issue, Jennings said. The crews saw adding concrete as a solution that they could conduct within their operational budget, Jennings said.

Sterne, who saw the crews pouring concrete, said he reached out to Jennings. Jennings said he then directed the crews to stop concreting the trail until the district could conduct community outreach to see what trail users wanted for the future of the path.

Jennings said that failing to ask for public input before beginning the project was a mistake, and the district will conduct public engagement in the future before making significant changes anywhere in its parks and open spaces.

a map with colored lines on part of the trail
An map of the approximately 2,200-foot section of the Lee Gulch Trail between Prince Street and the Mary Carter Greenway Trail that may be resurfaced with concrete as part of a South Suburban Parks and Recreation District project. Image by Nina Joss using Google Maps

The community survey, which closed on Dec. 20, will help the district determine what to do with the segment of the trail between Prince Street and the Mary Carter Greenway Trail, Jennings said.

“This is going to be up to the survey results,” Jennings said. “If residents would like to see it concreted, then we would move forward with the project. If they want to see it remain with the granite fines, then we would not do the project.”

Depending on the survey results, Jennings said the district may also discuss the possibility of removing the concrete that was poured in October.

To concrete or not to concrete?

Jennings said resurfacing the trail with concrete would help reduce erosion, washboarding, snow and ice on the trail, which he said are challenges for maintenance and safety — especially in snowy and rainy months.

The district generally does not plow soft-surface trails because bringing plows on potentially muddy trails can cause frozen ruts on the trail, which could cause safety issues, he said.

“You could twist an ankle on it,” he said. “You could catch a tire on it. It could just be very difficult to traverse.”

Since the district does not plow soft-surface trails, parts of the path can get icy as a result, Jennings said. He added that one of these sections is the part of the path near St. Mary’s Catholic School, which is located at 6833 S. Prince St.

“That section gets somewhat shaded and it just turns to ice, and then we don’t have any way to mitigate that ice,” he said. “On concrete trails, we have the ability to plow the snow back, and then the crews come back and we can utilize … a sand-salt mixture or whatever, to help mitigate ice.”

Sterne, however, said that in his experience, concrete parts of the path have been more dangerous than soft-surface parts, largely due to sheet ice. He said the only time he ever crashed while riding his bicycle on the Lee Gulch Trail was on concrete, and he believes he cracked his ribs from the fall.

“The irony of the whole thing is the most dangerous places along the trail are on the concrete,” he said. “(In) the Santa Fe underpass, water washes across the trail and then turns to sheet ice … Granite fines are actually a pretty good surface when there’s snow and ice on the ground, because it’s still a rough surface. It isn’t like concrete, which, once you get snow or ice or concrete, you’ve got sheet ice.”

Sterne said he remembers the district plowing parts of Lee Gulch Trail in the past without causing damage, and he would like to see that done again. Jennings said that if the soft-surface trail had been plowed before, it was not within the district’s policy to do so.

a concrete path connecting to a gravel path
A portion of the trail that was resurfaced with concrete by South Suburban Parks and Recreation District maintenance crews in October. Photo courtesy of Ned Sterne

Jennings said erosion can be a safety issue because some crusher fines get washed out and the thin layer of gravel leftover makes the path more slippery. One section where this has happened is near the baseball fields just east of Santa Fe Drive, he said.

“If they’re coming around that on their bicycles, (they) hit that gravel and slow down or slide in it,” he said. “We’ve heard complaints about that.”

Sterne said this section of the trail has been a challenge for users, but he thinks it could be fixed by realigning the trail.

“That would be a permanent fix that wouldn’t involve concrete,” Sterne said. “It could be done with crusher fine, granite fines, and it would solve the problem. And, we could revegetate the existing part of the trail that does get scoured during these high water events.”

Jennings said shifting the trail would be challenging because there is no space to do it without impeding on the existing baseball fields.

Sterne said he has walked the trail and gathered more than 80 signatures from trail users who want the trail to stay crusher fine. He and others are concerned about losing an important portion of the trail that connects users to a larger network of soft-surface trails in the region.

Beyond the comfort and safety preferences for the soft-surface trail, Sterne said another benefit of keeping the path soft would be to help it fit in better with its natural environment.

“We don’t want everything to be hardened,” he said. “We just want a natural trail through a natural corridor … The trail has done quite well, but there are places where it shouldn’t have been put where it is now – and we might be able to handle some of those with realignments, and then acknowledge that it does require maintenance.”

Jennings said the current maintenance of the portion of the trail in question costs about $8,000 to $10,000 annually.

The concreting project, if it moves forward, would likely cost somewhere between $232,000 and $247,000, Jennings said. The segment from Prince Street to a small bridge just south of the baseball fields would be concreted first, and the segment from the small bridge to the Mary Carter Greenway would be concreted in 2026 or 2027, he said.

Jennings said the district plans to analyze the survey results early this year and will discuss the results with the board and the City of Littleton before creating a plan.

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