The city Parks and Recreation Department is finalizing plans to lay a 10-foot-wide concrete bike/pedestrian path within Allsopp Park to connect the Kavanaugh Road Promenade in Hillcrest to the park’s asphalt path that parallels Cedar Hill Road.
The new trail, being built with a $200,000 grant from Metroplan, means pedestrians and cyclists on the asphalt path will not have to go through the parking lot behind Pulaski Heights Baptist Church. The route, engineered by the Halff + Marlar firm, will go around the west border of the church property and up to the back of the Promenade wall, ending at the west end of the Promenade. There is also a dirt trail from the Promenade into the park.
Leland Couch of the parks department said the new route will “minimize conflict behind the church” that is the case now. Parks will make as little alteration to the woods as possible, Couch said.
Concrete is being used because it’s cheaper to maintain in the long run, Couch said.