Phillip Barron
The Herald Sun
November 10th, 2005
DURHAM — Chris Sevick would love to be able to ride the entire 23 miles of the American Tobacco Trail. Three things stand in his way right now, but he hopes that riding it will be a real possibility one day soon.
The first obstacle is a 1,000-foot gap between where the trail currently ends at N.C. 54 and where it will pick up at The Streets at Southpoint. A pedestrian and cyclist bridge over Interstate 40 is in the works and funding has been set aside by the federal government (and was fodder for John Stewart’s political humor a few months back — “$2.8 million for something called the American Tobacco Trail in North Carolina,” he joked on the Daily Show). In a few years Durham will provide safe passage for cyclists, joggers, and walkers from one side of the expansive freeway to the other.
The second is that there’s still is no trail south of N.C. 54 through Southpoint. The railroad corridor has been purchased from Norfolk Southern through the N.C. Department of Transportation’s rail program and construction could begin as soon as a year from now.
The third obstacle is that, even when finished, riders have long expected the southern sections of the ATT to remain unpaved and instead be graded and topped with a packed gravel screening. Gravel makes it hard for Sevick to ride, since the Durham resident rides a traditional road bike with tires less than an inch wide.
“Given the long distances that the trail connects, it would be more efficient to use a road bike on a paved trail,” he said in a recent e-mail to the N.C. DOT. And this, whether to pave the southern sections of the American Tobacco Trail, is the issue at hand.
Bob Morris, vice president of the mountain bike club NC Fats, says that if the existing Wake County section of the ATT is an example of how the rest of the trail might be finished, he wouldn’t want to ride it either. The loose, softer trail surface attracts equestrians, but the impact of the horses’ hooves contributes to the fairly steady erosion of the trail. The ATT is pocked with rough sections that, even on a “cushy” full-suspension mountain bike, leave the trail difficult to ride, Morris says.
Morris is not worried that paving the American Tobacco Trail means losing it as a mountain biking opportunity. The ATT follows a former railroad corridor originally built by the New Hope Valley Railroad. Its long, straight stretches and minimal elevation changes lack the technical challenge of singeltrack that typically draws mountain bikers out into the woods.
Rails-to-trails projects across the country are most successful when they serve as both transportation corridors and recreational outlets. “Multi-use trails should serve the greatest number of users and paving is the way to do that,” Morris says.
Tom Norman is listening. Norman works with the division of the DOT charged with completing the American Tobacco Trail. As director of the division of bicycle and pedestrian transportation, he wants to hear from cyclists how they might use the trail and what kind of trail surface they prefer.
To clear up some confusion, Norman says there really has never been a plan for what to do with the southern portions of the ATT — at least not an authoritative one. DOT, which is responsible for the final design of the ATT, is currently in the information gathering stage of the design process.
So, why is everyone thinking that the southern half of the ATT wouldn’t look like the signature paved section between Southpoint and the Durham Bulls Athletic Park?
In 1992, the Triangle Rails-to-Trails Conservancy commissioned Greenways Inc. to develop a Master Plan recommending designs for completing the American Tobacco Trail. This independent study suggested, based on then-current levels of residential development and population south of I-40, that the sections south of Southpoint could be left with just a gravel topping.
But, a lot has changed in southern Durham, Wake, and Chatham counties since then. Residential development and population in 1992 was “substantially less dense than it is today and what projections showed that it would be,” says Norman. “Current residential density levels need to be taken into consideration.”
Norman adds that funds for this project have come from federal and state resources slated for development of alternative transportation, so there is pressure to think of the ATT as a transportation corridor first, with resulting recreational opportunities as a bonus.
So, if like Sevick, you’ve ever wished that you could continue riding your bike the entire length of the planned 23 miles of greenway, now is your chance to be heard. Norman is currently accepting input on whether the southern portions of the American Tobacco Trail should be paved.
You can reach him at tnorman@dot.state.nc.us or by writing to him at this address: Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation, 1552 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1552.