Dug Road Trail expected to reopen soon

The part of Dug Road Trail that was washed out in flooding last August could reopen soon--perhaps as early as this coming weekend.

Decorah City Engineer Lindsay Erdman says an excavator will be brought in on Thursday to take soil samples on the trail.  Those samples will be sent to FEMA, which has been in protracted discussions with Decorah about what funding there will be for repairing the trail.

At issue is FEMA's desire to pay for repairing the trail back to what it was before the flooding--but the City of Decorah's reluctance to make repairs which could just get washed out again in the next flood.

Erdman says the soil samples that will be taken Thursday will be used to determine which approach would work best.  He says after the excavator is done taking samples, the trail will be repaired so that foot traffic can use it again.