CENTENNIAL — Bullsnakes and birds scattered as yellow earthmovers broke ground Wednesday to build one of the last bicycle-trail links on the 41-mile stretch from downtown Denver to Castlewood Canyon State Park.
A new 107-acre open space along Cherry Creek — amid suburban apartments and shopping centers — surrounds the emerging stretch of concrete trail.
“People want a nonmotorized alternative. They want to be able to view nature,” Arapahoe County open- space manager Bob Toll said as project leaders gathered to celebrate.
The trail, scheduled for completion this fall, will help meet needs of busy urban people “to experience wildlife, to experience openness, to experience natural randomness,” Toll said. “We all have some inherent level of connection to the land.”
Completion of the 1-mile section of trail here would leave only a few parts of Douglas County and Arapahoe Road as trail-free areas for bicyclists riding out from central Denver to southeastern canyons and prairie.
Parker-Jordan Metropolitan District officials teamed up with Centennial officials to acquire the 107 acres and push through permits for what has become an $8 million project. Parker-Jordan president Norman Sheldon said the open-space area — reachable from a trailhead west of the intersection of Parker Road and Broncos Parkway — will include an amphitheater, drinking fountains, toilets, a 5-kilometer running path and a covered $60,000 computer kiosk with a 40-inch screen to convey information about history and nature.
Cherry Creek meanders through a floodplain here, past apartments and houses dependent on groundwater. Creek banks will be stabilized in a naturalistic way, to control its flow, Sheldon said.
Centennial Mayor Cathy Noon reckoned the area will help give Centennial (pop. 102,000) an identity. “It’s going to put us on the map.”
For deer, hawks, coyotes and snakes, the open space is ideal, said Tim Metzger, manager of Cherry Creek State Park to the north. “As things become more urbanized, people are going to use this area,” and unofficial trails “destroy the habitat more,” Metzger said. A well-designed open-space area means “people will stay on the trail, rather than fragmenting areas off the trail.”
Cyclists already were sizing up possibilities as front-loader driver Terry Reh and dozer-driver Harry Arquiro pressed ahead with their work.
“It doesn’t hurt the environment, riding your bike,” Emily Marshall, 12, said with members of her Girl Scout group. “It doesn’t emit pollution. It helps the gas crisis too.”
