What detour will be set up for walkers, joggers and bike riders on the Trout Run Trail?

It looks like it will be a long time before the flooding damage done to the Dug Road Trail portion of the Trout Run Trail can be repaired.  That has city and county officials thinking about a way to detour trail traffic around that segment of the trail.

While Dug Road is open partially, the mudslide means there is no through traffic.

City and county officials are discussing how to get trail users from Oneota Drive to the trail north of Main Street.  A popular suggestion is to use a detour onto Fifth Avenue, but the bigger question is how to get trail traffic back onto the trail from Fifth Avenue at College Drive.

The owners of Weis Buick on College Drive have been talking about allowing trail traffic to cut behind their building on the south side of College Drive, joining up with city sidewalks that run to Main Street.

Another possibility is to ask the Corps of Engineers for temporary permission to allow trail traffic to travel on top of the dike while Dug Road is being repaired.

Other options include sending trail traffic down Heivly Street to Monroe Street, then heading north to rejoin the trail on the north side of the dike or sending trail traffic down Ice Cave Road to rejoin the trail by crossing over Twin Bridges.

One option NOT favored by city and county officials is to send trail traffic down College Drive and then west on Water Street or Main Street.  This option would cross too many commercial driveways on College Drive, including those used by Whippy Dip customers, and city and county officials say they're concerned about possible car/pedestrian accidents.

None of these options has been chosen yet, but one may be picked soon so that something is in place for tourists to use this fall and because the detour could be a one-month experiment that would be changed if problems occurred.