1.4-mile, 6-foot-wide parallel trail to extend from west of Beneva Road to Shade Avenue
The work on the first bifurcated section of The Legacy Trail was scheduled to begin this week, with construction planned from west of Beneva Road to Shade Avenue in Sarasota, county staff announced.
The initiative entails a 1.4-mile-long, 6-foot-wide, “separate parallel trail to improve user experience and safety,” the announcement continued.
“This new trail will provide distinct spaces for a variety of users — such as bike commuters and recreational cyclists on one path, and dog walkers, families with strollers and children learning to ride bikes on the other,” the notice pointed out. The design will help “reduce conflicts and accommodate diverse needs,” it said.
“The Legacy Trail will remain open for the project,” the notice added, although users should use caution, with equipment in the area.
The expense is being covered by North County Park Impact Fees, a grant from the state’s Recreational Trails Program, and a private donation, a county webpage says. The contract with Spectrum Underground LLC puts the construction cost at $356,083.25, a separate webpage points out.
The Kimley-Horn consulting firm in Sarasota created the design, the second webpage notes. That expense was $59,950.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) issued its formal Notice to Proceed on Oct. 16, the second webpage adds.
As The Sarasota News Leader has reported, on Sept. 12, 2023, the County Commission accepted a $400,000 grant from FDEP for the first bifurcated segment of The Legacy Trail. The biking-walking route extends from the city of North Port to downtown Sarasota’s Payne Park.
A county staff memo in that meeting’s agenda packet explained that the county would need to provide a $497,000 match for the state money. The memo added that more than 50% of that match would be coming from “various donations,” including $200,000 from the nonprofit Friends of the Legacy Trail and $40,000 from the Sarasota Manatee Bicycling Club. The rest of the matching money — $177,000 — would come out of North County Impact fees, the memo said.
During a June 25, 2020 Zoom update as county staff was preparing to break ground on the first segment of the North Extension of The Legacy Trail — which runs from Culverhouse Nature Park on Palmer Ranch to Payne Park — Nicole Rissler, director of the Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department (PRNR), talked about the concept of bifurcated sections of the Trail. As funding allowed, she said, the Trail could be split in areas where residential construction exists on both sides. Such a modification would reduce the need for bicyclists to alert pedestrians that they are approaching — as county staff has urged — in an effort to enhance safety on the segments.
Bicyclists are encouraged either to call out or to ring bells on their bikes, in an effort to prevent collisions with pedestrians.
The staff memo for the Sept. 12, 2023 meeting also noted that, as PRNR worked on the North Extension of the Trail, several sections “were designed and constructed with the goal of installing a bifurcated trail adjacent to the [14-foot] paved trail.”
The grant application submitted to FDEP explained that The Legacy Trail opened in 2008, “providing more than 10 miles of paved trail from the Venice Train Depot to Culverhouse Nature Park. Prior to becoming a popular recreational trail, it was a railroad corridor that ran the Seaboard Air Line Railway, serving Sarasota and Venice for over 80 years.”
Then, on Nov. 8, 2018, the application continued, “Sarasota County voters approved a bond referendum to acquire and extend The Legacy Trail north nearly 8 miles,” continuing along the existing railroad corridor to downtown Sarasota.
The Friends of the Legacy Trail provides an interactive map of the Trail on its website.
Further, the nonprofit organization maintains data on use of the Trail. Through September, the chart shows, the number of users was 451,162. For the full 2024 calendar year, the chart says, the figure was 644,408.
The organization provides this explanation for how it arrives at the figures.