The village of Dexter has a walkability score of 66 out of 100, according to Walkscore.com. But with the completion of another segment on the county-spanning
Border to Border Trail, that score may rise.
Construction on the remaining portion of the first phase of the 1.42-mile River Terrace Trail, a segment of the Border-to-BorderTrail that connects downtown Dexter with Dexter-Huron Metropark, is to commence in September and should be finished up later this fall, says Coy Vaughn, deputy director of the Washtenaw County Parks & Recreation Commission.
This stretch includes another 650 linear feet of boardwalk and 235 feet of paved trail. An additional 3,195-foot length of trail base will be laid, with plans to pave it as part of the second phase next spring. The county is also working to obtain an easement from Norfolk Southern Railroad to install the last 1,400-foot length to run up to Central Street.
And another three-mile asphalt and boardwalk segment running north from Dexter to existing trail in Hudson Mills Metropark is now going out for bids, and should be finished by late summer of 2013, according to Vaughn. "When this is completed, from downtown Dexter, you'll be able to take a 12-mile roundtrip bike ride through the metro parks and stay all on off-road trails."
Once that section is laid, over 20 miles out of 35 Border-to-Border Trail miles will be complete, Vaughn says. "We're just getting over the halfway mark, but we're piecing it together and it's one of our priority projects. It's having a lot of impact on the communities along the Huron River."
Source: Coy Vaughn, deputy director, Washtenaw County Parks & Recreation Commission
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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