Park County commissioners recently received plans for some new and upgraded pathways around Powell — but bikers and walkers shouldn’t expect them to be built anytime soon.

“I don’t know that we can afford anything right now …,” Commission Chair Dossie Overfield mused at a Dec. 16 meeting.

The county has been studying the potential of new biking/walking paths for the past several years, with roughly $115,000 of state and county dollars spent on the effort to date and more invoices still pending. While the paths would serve as a new amenity for Powell area residents, the county’s primary aim is to alleviate congestion and improve safety on the roads along the city’s northern and western edges.

“The county roads in and around Powell are getting a lot of pedestrian [and bicycle] traffic,” Erik Wachob of Engineering Associates (EA) explained at last month’s meeting. “People like to recreate and sometimes commute around the margins of Powell.”

Of particular concern is the stretch of Road 10 that runs between West Seventh Street and Lane 8. While the road is popular among walkers and cyclists, it’s also a truck route and has no real shoulder, with a steep drop-off into Bitter Creek on the eastern side of the road.

Unfortunately, EA found it would be impractical to bury the creek/drainage ditch, because the large culvert “would get very expensive very fast,” Wachob said. And building on the west side of Road 10 would require the county to expand its right-of-way by another 20 feet, he said, which “would probably not be favorably received” by the current landowner.

Instead, EA recommended the county build a path a half-mile to the east, on Road 9H. That would still connect the city of Powell to the popular stretch of Lane 8 but could be built within the existing county right-of-way, Wachob said.

EA said the path could be constructed on the eastern side of the Road 9H and run along Northwest College-linked property, including the college’s equestrian facility. Moving the existing irrigation infrastructure and building the half-mile path would cost about $421,500, according to EA’s estimates.

The report came as a disappointment to Commissioner Lloyd Thiel, as the section of Road 10 was his top priority with the study. Thiel expressed skepticism that the walkers and bikers now using Road 10 would switch over to Road 9H.

“I hate to say that we wasted the money,” Thiel said of the planning and design work done to date, “but I’m not in favor of moving forward, because we’re still going to have the problem of pedestrians on a truck route.”

However, commissioners Overfield and Scott Mangold were more optimistic.

Speaking as a walker, “if I have an alternative that does not put me in with beet trucks, I’m going to use that alternative,” Overfield said.

Mangold also suggested people would eventually make the switch to a new walking path on Road 9H.

“I’m in favor of the project,” he said, but suggested it should be shelved, as “we are sort of short on funds.”

Other potential paths

EA’s design also included plans for new and improved paths along Lane 8.

For instance, the firm estimated that grading and paving the existing gravel pathway between Absaroka Street (Wyo. Highway 295) and Road 8 would cost about $295,550. If the path went about half that distance, to just east of Gilbert Street's intersection with Lane 8, that would create a continuous paved route, as the City of Powell recently paved the roughly half-mile path that runs from Seventh Street to Lane 8, passing by the Rainwater Court stormwater retention basins.

EA also suggested the county could extend the paved Lane 8 pathway west of the Park County Annex and towards road 9H and 10 for $596,830.

Additionally, a new path could be installed on Road 8, not far from Powell High School, for about $150,750, the firm found.

Even if the plans are shelved for now, Park County Public Works Project Manager Ben McDonald said the work was not a waste, noting they could be used in the future.
“Things definitely could change in the next several years,” he said.

As just one example, McDonald said the City of Powell may take interest in the plans and that the work can proceed in pieces.

“I think it’s going to happen in certain places,” he said.

A multi-phased project

The county began working on the pathway project in 2020. The initial planning and scoping phase cost around $50,000, with about $40,000 covered by a Wyoming Department of Transportation grant and the other $10,000 paid by the county. 

The county decided to proceed to an engineering and design phase in 2023. 

Park County Engineer Brian Edwards told the Tribune that the work was initially expected to cost around $300,000, but it now looks like the final cost will be “substantially lower.” While the county is still waiting for final invoices from EA, so far it’s only received $65,000 worth of bills, Edwards said Monday.

Thanks to an influx of federal funding under the American Rescue Plan Act, WYDOT is picking up an even bigger share of the cost of the design work, with the county only on the hook for 9.5% of the bill.

Additionally, if either the county or the City of Powell wants to move forward with constructing a pathway in the future, Edwards said they could apply for another grant from WYDOT.

“The design is ready if/when funding is available to proceed,” he said.

(Editor's note: This version corrects how much pathway would be paved east of the Park County Annex within the $295,550 estimate.)