RiverWalk extension finally breaks ground
Long-anticipated project to add 2.4 miles to trail — to just east of Interstate 4 — and be completed in mid-2020
Twice a day, Paula Huguley takes a long stroll on Sanford’s RiverWalk trail that winds along the southern edge of Lake Monroe. She’ll watch alligators float by on the choppy waters, birds dive from the sky to catch fish and joggers zip by her.
“It’s quiet and peaceful,” said Huguley, 63, of Sanford. “It helps me just relax and think.”
On her walk Thursday, Huguley was pleased to see Sanford and Seminole County officials — along with civil engineers and construction crews — pick up
shovels and break ground on a $28 million construction project that will extend the city’s popular RiverWalk trail 2.4 miles westward from Central Florida Regional Hospital, past the Central Florida Zoo and to an existing regional trail near Wayside Park on West Seminole Boulevard.
When the section is completed in mid-2020, the RiverWalk will stretch nearly five miles between Mellonville Avenue to just east of Interstate 4.
It also will fill in one of the last gaps of a 26-mile uninterrupted pathway around Lake Monroe, giving bicyclists and pedestrians a way to travel between downtown Sanford and south Volusia County without the noise and danger of cars and trucks zooming closely by.
“This has been a long time coming, and we’re pleased to see it finally happening,” Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett said about the final phase of the RiverWalk trail.
“On any given day you can be on the trail and see hundreds of people, walking or on their bikes.”
When the first segment of the RiverWalk — between Mellonville and French Avenues – was built in 2004, it quickly became a popular attraction for Sanford
residents and visitors. Thousands of joggers and strollers immediately took to it. The city began holding festivals, art shows and running races on the paved pathway.
“This has become a great asset for the city of Sanford,” City Manager Norton Bonaparte said.
Then in early 2015, Sanford finished extending the trail another mile along the water’s edge, between French Avenue and Central Florida Regional Hospital.
Now, as construction of the third and final phase of the RiverWalk takes place, the county also plans to begin building a 3.6-mile bike path running from the eastern terminus of the RiverWalk, along Mellonville and Celery avenues to an existing trail at State Road 415.
That county segment — at a cost of just over $3 million — should be completed by mid-2021, according to Seminole officials. By that time, the third segment of the RiverWalk Trail should be finished and the entire Lake Monroe Loop complete.
“This is very exciting, especially for someone like me who grew up in Sanford and didn’t have any trails to use,” said County Commissioner Brenda Carey, who touted the health benefits of recreational trails at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Still, construction of the RiverWalk extension will be no easy task.
“It is an engineering marvel,” said Chris Smith, Sanford’s project manager. “It’s going to be an incredible feat in doing this.”
Workers — as many as 100 a day on average — will begin by drilling thousands of tons of corrugated steel into the lake’s bottom to build a new and higher seawall just a few feet from West Seminole Boulevard.
The seawall will hold back the water as large trucks dump millions of tons of dirt to create a base for the new trail. Crews also will drive steel anchors into the ground to prevent all that dirt and the trail from collapsing.
Workers then will spread tons of asphalt and concrete to form the 10-foot-wide trail. To complete the project, the city will add decorative lights, landscaping, benches and railings.
Leon Konieczny, 66, who often rides his bike from his downtown Sanford home, looks forward to riding on the new trail segment and maybe even the entire loop around Lake Monroe when it’s completed.
“It’s going to be beautiful — a nice wide trail to ride on,” Konieczny said. “You have great views of the lake. I see alligators. I see birds. I see all kinds of animals. …We have what Orlando doesn’t have: a big lakefront with a long trail.”