The Potential Of The Los Alamos Urban Trail

Elevated boardwalk from below. Courtesy photo

A walk through the trees. Courtesy photo

BY KEVIN HOLSAPPLE
Los Alamos

In the heart of Los Alamos, a fairly new pedestrian (and bicycle) artery of concrete and boardwalk shows interesting potential for a new way for residents and visitors to move through the “Secret City.” The Urban Trail, a one-mile multi-use paved route, is a high-quality piece of pedestrian infrastructure that could benefit from enhancements to increase its value.

Los Alamos County Deputy Public Works Director Keith Wilson. Courtesy photo

An Engineering Feat

The physical trail itself is a test of municipal design skills. Stretching between the Los Alamos Visitor Center and the Los Alamos Nature Center (PEEC), it provides a safe, ADA-compliant corridor that navigates a slice of the town’s notoriously tricky terrain. Recently, Keith Wilson, Los Alamos County Deputy Public Works Director, walked the Urban Trail with me (a big shoutout to Keith for taking time on a Saturday morning to do this) and shared stories of the scoping, engineering, and design challenges, and the building of the trail. At the time of the trail’s design and construction, Keith was the County’s Project Manager.

“The terrain here is a puzzle,” explained Keith. To solve it, the project utilized a PermaTrak precast concrete boardwalk that “floats” above rocky slopes near the Canyon Road tennis courts. With a consistent 10-foot width (wider at the boardwalk) and gentle grading, the trail successfully links major recreational and cultural hubs, allowing for a seamless transition from the history of the Manhattan Project to the natural wonders of the canyon rim. The other alternative was to build a large dirt berm, which would have destroyed the natural area. Maintaining ADA compliance was a trick that required sequencing flat and steeper sections. And the Canyon Road pedestrian crossing is a good demonstration of making a street crossing safer with an inexpensive (Keith ballparked $20K) on-demand design enhancement. Keith told me that crossing enhancements, including flashing lights, signage, and pavement markings at Trinity and 20th (similar to the Canyon Road crossing), will be constructed in the coming months as part of the Trinity Drive Safety Improvement Project. This is an interim treatment, expected to be upgraded to a full traffic signal when the 20th Street Development is completed.

From our conversation, it was clear that consideration of the trail’s potential visitor/tourism role, and how it could help adjacent local businesses, was not part of the project scope. The wheels started turning in my brain. Could some inexpensive interpretive, navigational, and landscaping enhancements make a difference?

The Missing (and Underrecognized)Links: Reaching Full Potential

Despite its engineering accomplishment, the Urban Trail remains a “diamond in the rough.” For the trail to evolve from a local shortcut into a visitor-worthy attraction, several gaps must be bridged:

The Visibility Gap: While the trail passes within a stone’s throw of vibrant local businesses, it feels disconnected from them. To the uninitiated visitor, the coffee spots, shopping, and dining of the downtown core are “hidden in plain sight. Other than the beer garden (which has no signage), it looks like the backs of buildings and unmarked service entrances. Central Park Square has done a nice thing with the big photo of the Big House, but they could help all their tenants on the other side of the buildings if a simple and attractive screening structure could be erected along the back of the buildings facing the other way that could accept similar large graphics tastefully hinting at the shopping, dining, coffee spots, bars, taprooms, etc that are a few steps from the Urban Trail. Also, Bathtub Row Brewery could consider installing an attractive, welcoming sign facing the Urban Trail. Navigational clues at the intersections with spur paths entering the area are essential to drawing pedestrians off the concrete and into local businesses.
Navigational Cues Without Signage Clutter: Other communities use stenciled surface icon systems for pedestrian navigation to minimize above-ground signage clutter. Some communities are even turning navigational cues into community art projects.
The “Bean, Book, and Brew” Corridor: One segment of the trail already stands out as a prime candidate for immediate promotion to visitors: the stretch between the Los Alamos Visitor Center and the Bathtub Row Brewing Co-op beer garden. This corridor through the historic core is a short, pleasant stroll that could better connect essential community heritage with local commerce. The trail surface in this stretch could be the palette for navigational symbols to help visitors know they are adjacent to five coffee/tea sellers, two gelato purveyors, a book & gift shop, a children’s play cafe, two craft taprooms, eight dining/eating places, two places that frequently feature evening entertainment, and two bars including a craft cocktail bar as they walk the quarter mile.

Existing Trail & Route Connections: I like to think of the route as a loop rather than a disconnected segment. By walking the Urban Trail to the Nature Center and then looping back up Central Avenue, visitors can pass the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden, public art, and walk through the historic Ashley Pond Park, starting/ending at the Manhattan Park and Los Alamos Visitor Centers. This loop provides a “Park Once” itinerary for visitors blending natural beauty, historic landmarks, nature & forest segments, the elevated forest boardwalk, nature & forest connections, scenic viewpoints, and local commerce. Other connections to enhance and promote are the Kinnikinnick Park Trail (ADA-compliant), the Acid Canyon Rim Trail, the connection to the Jim Billen and Pueblo Canyon Rim Trail, and the Central Avenue pedestrian corridor. However, each of these requires the narrative to be created and promoted in visitor materials and at the Visitor Centers, as well as pedestrian visual cues, as already discussed.
The Southern Connection: The trail’s potential will be greatly increased when it becomes safely connected to the planned extension of the Canyon Rim Trail. Hopefully, the scope of the extension project will include explicit consideration of how it can help local businesses and serve as a factor for visitors and for multi-use transportation.

Urban Trail as it descends to the elevated boardwalk. Courtesy photo

Leveraging the Investment
With a project cost of approximately $4.3 million, the Urban Trail is a significant investment in multi-use infrastructure. It provides an ADA-compliant “spine” for a more walkable Los Alamos, but the “ribs”—the navigational clues, “Bean, Book, and Brew” Corridor, and well-thought-out and promoted connectivities — could be low-cost, quick projects that will leverage the investment. They could help the Urban Trail to become a bigger asset for the Los Alamos downtown experience.

Places where navigational cues will help visitors [navigational cues]: stenciled surface icons can be used to avoid above-surface signage clutter.