So what do we do about the Rail Trail closure?

 

Trail closure just south of St. Michael's Drive, looking south

The Rail Trail in Santa Fe is what could quite correctly be called the most important "bicycle arterial" in the city of Santa Fe. It provides connectivity to the Chamiso Trail as well as its own connections to the south end of Santa Fe, including housing and commercial activities on Zia and beyond, and the cinder trail all the way from Rabbit Road to Lamy. I think closing it without a plan socialized to the public is incredibly thoughtless or possibly, shows an incredible stovepiping of government.

 The issue is, a developer is doing serious digging just south of St Michael's Drive that likely has to do with the Cerro del Norte subdivision, and the Rail Trail is shut down for what looks like a month as the excavation and construction goes right through it. Seems odd, don't you think, that no one bothered to set out a well marked detour for bicyclists and pedestrians or consider the importance of the trail to users as part of a traffic control plan? After all, there are huge, practically glow in the dark signs directing motorists around the West Alameda Washout detour. Or are bicyclists and pedestrians irrelevant?

True to form, since government dropped the ball, people have pounded out a dirt trail in the space between the construction zone and the Rail Runner tracks. It isn't pretty, but I rode down there as I saw one walker headed toward the closure (photo above) and he was followed by about four others, one on a bike and the others on foot.

The newly pounded down dirt path around the construction zone, running along the rail tracks, photo looking north.

Well, here is one suggestion, courtesy of Tim Rogers. For southbound cyclists, ride the Rail Trail southbound to the Second Street crossing. Turn left onto W San Mateo (the street name changes at the Railrunner tracks). Make the first right, barely a tenth of a mile if that, onto Calle Llorca. Take Llorca past St. Michaels Drive to Siringo, turn right, jog about a tenth of a mile back to the Rail Trail/Chamisa Trail crossing and keep going. For northbound cyclists, do the reverse. 

 Just don't ride too close to parked cars on Llorca. I tried the route today. Works fine. Holler if you discover problems, such as the buried loop detectors on Llorca not seeing a bicyclist.  I think that road should be posted with signage showing that suddenly, a lot of cyclists will be there.

 Now, if the city would get with the program and have its various departments communicate with each other, we might not have such surprises.

Green line is the Rail Trail. I've penned in the detour in red. Chamisa trail split is just south of Siringo.