Bike, Jogging Path Along Santa Clara River Expected to Be Built Next Year

A bicycle and jogging lane that runs parallel to the Santa Clara River is expected to be constructed next year, but planners aren’t sure of its exact cost or route.

The City Council tonight will authorize the bid process for work on the Chuck Pontius Commuter Rail Trail, a three-mile corridor along the river and Soledad Canyon Road, between Camp Plenty Bridge in Canyon Country and the Santa Clarita Transit Center in Saugus.

Santa Clarita has $1.05 million in state transportation funds to spend on the project. A bare-bones trail can be built for $1 million, but amenities such as lighting or landscaping could drive the cost up to $3.6 million, said city civil engineer Kit Nell.

“This is our one opportunity to clean up the Soledad corridor,” said Nell. “We’d like to take advantage of it.”

The proposed corridor would be 25- to 30-feet wide with two six-foot asphalt lanes for bicycles, a five-foot decomposed granite jogging track, a four- to eight-foot concrete sidewalk and five feet of landscaping.

Cost concerns may whittle down the corridor to little more than the basic asphalt path. Added costs include up to $900,000 for landscaping, $800,000 to remove billboards and reimburse owners for the loss of income, $750,000 to bury electrical lines at the corridor’s east end, $325,000 for trail lights and $275,000 for Soledad Canyon Road street lights.

Cyclists can still ride on Soledad Canyon Road, which no longer has a bike lane, but the off-road trail is considered safer for commuting. The corridor is named after James (Chuck) Pontius III, a 28-year-old city employee who was struck by a car and killed March 31, 1993, in Val Verde while bicycling.

Crews removed the bike lane from Soledad Canyon Road on Monday to add a third traffic lane in each direction.

Funds set aside for future work on Santa Clarita’s planned 25-mile network of trails might be shifted to fund trail improvements, but there are no plans to charge residents.

“That’s not even considered as an option at this point,” Nell said.

The trail is to be south of Soledad Canyon Road, but its exact route is undetermined. A public meeting is scheduled for April 25 at 7 p.m. at the William S. Hart Union High School District main office to discuss specific alignments for the trail.

Construction of the Chuck Pontius Commuter Rail Trail is scheduled to begin in 1995 and take about three months to complete.