Campus/Harrison West Description

THE OLENTANGY TRAIL CAMPUS / HARRISON WEST LANE AVE TO 3 RD AVE	GOING NORTH: NEXT SECTION	GOING SOUTH: NEXT SECTION

THE TRAIL IS OPEN THROUGH OSU CAMPUS

DESCRIPTION

With the arrival of Spring '05, the constructions issues of the past few years have resolved themselves leaving us with a nearly new trail section. The 1.7 miles of the Campus/Harrison West section have been almost completely rebuilt or realigned with the possibility that the remaining section may also be upgraded in the future.

The trail begins, for the purposes of this section, with Lane Ave. To the north, the trail connects via the new routing, with the existing trail in southern Tuttle Park. You can also access the trail directly from Lane via stairs (north and south side of the road) or a ramp (north side only.) Look for the inset compass. Going south, onto the OSU campus proper, the trail is flat and runs along the river below the French Field House for a long block.

CROSSING WOODY HAYES DRIVE

You should take the ramp up to Woody Hayes Dr. The trail continues along the river but currently dead-ends under the new bridges. Hopefully, OSU will link this up with the existing trail in the future.

In the meantime, once at the top of the ramp, you cross Woody Hayes Dr at street level. Depending on the traffic and time of day, you may want to jog the block to the east and cross with the Cannon Dr light. In any case, the old trail-head on the south side of Woody Hayes marks the resumption of the trail. The segment from here to the John Herrick Dr underpass is the old section of trail and, as of this writing, is a patchwork of campus walkways, concrete arcades and worn asphalt. A little south of the trailhead, you'll connect with the walkways to Drake Union. You can go up along the second floor walkway (requires some quick turns on the south side) or down a short steep slope and cross the parking area via a new sidewalk. (another short steep ramp back up). The trail turns and heads under Herrick, up and behind the AEP power station and then turns into a new section which runs down near the river and off campus under King and 5th Ave before ramping up through a small pocket park and ending (for this section) at the trailhead by the Third Ave bridge.

IMPRESSIONS

The character of this section has changed quite a bit. The rustic, forested quality of the trail north of the old Tuttle Park route gave way to a fair amount of street crossings and traffic and detours and such. Only when the trail got south of the AEP plant did things settle down and you could appreciate the wide river vista. Now, that's more the character of the whole section. The imposing new Lane Ave bridge, the wide river along the campus, the low dam and so on.

FUTURE TRAIL

HOLIDAY GIFT: OSU TO BEGIN TRAIL UPGRADE IN 2008

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that OSU will begin upgrading the Olentangy Trail segment that runs from Woody Hayes Drive to the AEP power substation in the coming year. The University developed a three phase plan which was released in 2005 (see link below) and had originally been tentatively scheduled to start, funding pending, this past summer. The article, which can be found here, follows a meeting by a number of bicycle-use advocates (some of whom are contributors to this site) with the returning University President, Gordon Gee and others. The plan exists in three phases.

Phase 1 - connects the current dead end under Woody Hayes Dr (where the new trail from the bridge installations a few years ago was put down) with the existing trail on the levee top.

Phase 2 - reconfigures the trail around Drake Union to run on the river side. (this requires bridging the old rowing team marina on that side)

Phase 3 - reconstructs the trail from Drake Union under John Herrick and along the river side of the power substation to the new trail put down during the new SR315 off-ramp installations a few years ago.

The article mentions that Phases 1 and 3 have sufficient funding and that Phase 2, with its more extensive development, is dependent on how much funding will remain after that is installed. In any case, the poor condition of the existing section will be addressed with some repaving this year regardless of whether the second phase is completed.

OSU FINAL DRAFT PLAN FOR CAMPUS BIKEWAYS

The original draft plan is dated 11/11/05

The OSU website page is here: http://www.fpd.ohio-state.edu/?segue=MP (click on the Master Plan link)

The plan, in PDF format is here: Campus Bikeways Plan 11/11/05

The updated plan, in PDF format is here: campus_bikeways_5-10-06.pdf

I will put up something a little more html-friendly as I get time. In the interim, these four pages are the relevant section on the proposed Olentangy Trail improvements with a plan for the new section and routing of trail from Woody Hayes Drive to Herrick Drive and the existing new section south of the power station. The proposed routing moves the trail down closer to the river and bypasses the issues with the walkways to the towers and Drake Union walkways by having it pass on the river side of Drake Union via an existing and new bridge (over the boat slip area). This strikes me as a big plus since, aside from the more scenic views, it will separate campus use-traffic and recreational use-traffic which can be an issue on the existing trail.


Campus Bikeways Final Draft Plan (Click on image to bring up plan in PDF format)	Pages pertinent to the Olentangy Trail. Click on page image to bring up in separate window.


Current Trail End under Woody Hayes Dr	Same view last Winter	Another view	The trail ends in this short section of heavy brush	Once past, though, the terrain is flat.	The existing trail on the berm above

A little farther south	Looking back toward Woody Hayes Dr	South to the picnic shelter	Closer view with existing wood bridge.	Bridge (Would remain) crosses old power plant inflow.	South side looking towards Drake Union. Note culvert.

Approaching the NW corner of Drake Union	View of the boat slips.	Closer view. A new bridge would span the area over the current slips	View back from SW side. Slips would be moved to opp side.	Continuing along west side of Drake. Looking towards Herrick	View back of boat area.

Closer view of lawn and Herrick Dr.	Another view	Closer view of trail under Herrick. The new section would intersect here.	View back to Drake from existing trail.	View under Herrick. Plan calls for retaining wall and shift of trail along power plant.

06/02/2008

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