Pondering trails: Moses Lake Trails Planning Team talks about new trails on Marina Drive, state Route 17, Nelson Road

At a recent Moses Lake Trails Planning Team meeting, many ideas were thrown around to extend, repair or beautify pedestrian and bicycle opportunities across town in coming months.

Several hit immediate roadblocks – funding, coding or authority – while a few held water. Some even have precise timelines.

While some cracks of the Joseph K. Gavinski Trail in downtown Moses Lake have been resealed, they have a way to go, said Richard Teals, Trails Planning Team chair.

“In some certain sections, people won’t ride on the trail because every so often, frequently every 20 yards, you get bump, bump, bump, and it’s not a nice ride,” he said.

A maintenance crew should be able to finish the trail maintenance by summer’s end, said Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Susan Schwiesow.

Some of the cracks have gotten so big that normal rubber crack fill won’t do the trick, she said. They have a machine which lays a more durable mastic better suited for the area that needs repairs, hence the delay.

At some point, the Gavinski Trail should connect all the way to the Best Western Plus Lake Front Hotel parking lot on Marina Drive, said city engineer Richard Law.

A big goal of the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services comprehensive plan advisory committee is to connect existing trails, Teals said.

Another area of interest is along state Route 17 coming into Moses Lake, he said. While there’s no timeline yet, there’s been talk of a new bike path stretching from the Interstate 90 ramp.

A pedestrian pathway could go from Lakeland Drive through Nelson Road to serve the schools along there, Law said.

The school district is building Moses Lake Avenue with sidewalks on both sides, he said, but it intersects with Nelson Road, which is county-style: ditches on both sides, no curb and no sidewalk.

Lakeland Drive has curbs and sidewalks, he said, but Nelson Road creates a 900-foot gap without them.

“That’s a dangerous, dangerous area,” Teals said.

While rebuilding Nelson Road would cost millions of dollars, a pedestrian path would cost less than $100,000, Law said.

This is going to take lots of discussion, as there is no obvious place to put the trail, he said. There are obstacles on both the north and south side of Nelson Road.

Developing new trail networks in general is a bit challenging in Moses Lake, he said.

Wenatchee and the Tri-Cities have long trail networks along the river because it’s mostly public property, he said. Along Moses Lake, it’s almost all private.

“I’m trying to navigate around the stop signs, you know what I mean? I’m trying to get stuff done,” he said.

With the Northern Columbia Basin Railroad Project, restoring the railroad into the Port of Moses Lake, this could be a big opportunity to use the old Columbia Basin Railroad roadmap for trail development, he said.

The result could be a regional rails to trails project in the future, connecting the town’s trails. Some of this land is in the county, he said, but it’s possible.

This has been a goal of the Trails Planning Team for a long time, Teals said.

“I think (trails are) valuable for people’s quality of life in all reality,” Law said. “More and more people are expressing the desire to have these things.”