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Rails to Trails expanding west of Hillard Street
- City approves bid to install nearly a half-mile of walking and biking path and trees. Grass will come later
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Rails to Trails Phase II will be getting underway soon after the the Taft City Council approved a bid from Bowman Asphalt to install nearly half a mine of jogging, walking and bike path west from Hillard Street to near Sandy Creek Tuesday night.
Bowman's base bid for the installation of the path, irrigation system and trees was $252,252.
The other bid came from Griffith Construction and it totaled $268, 717.
City manager Craig Jones said the city can't afford to install grass at this point, and some solar-power lighting will be installed on the path as a pilot project.
The actual length of the new extension is .46 miles and it will be 50 feet wide, just like the rest of Rails to Trails, which currently stretches from Hillard east to Second Street.
This was the second time the project had been put out to bid.
The first time, bids came back very high, Jones said, because of the uncertainty of the cost of removing all the old railroad ties that had to be done before the actual construction started. So the city dug out and removed the ties and other material over the past six months before rebidding the job, Jones said.
