New trail will provide a direct gateway to Santa Cruz

“This is going to be a world-class facility,” said Santa Cruz associate civil engineer Nathan Nguyen.

An open house gave Santa Cruz residents a sneak peak of design plans for a new pedestrian and bike trail coming to town.

“I think it would get people to really see where we have problems, where we don’t have problems,” said Santa Cruz resident Alex Ireland. “Where we could have walkers, bikers, trains altogether.”

A little more than two miles long, it will run from Natural Bridges Drive to the Santa Cruz Wharf.

It’s a new gateway project leaders believe will help solve a lot of problems.

“We have a public obesity problem, we have congested roadways,” said Cory Coletti, with the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. “We don’thaveenough safe routes to school, we have climate change and greenhouse gas reduction needs.”

The 12 to 16-foot paved Coastal Rail Trail will connect thousands of people from north and south to businesses, beaches and other activity centers.

“The trail itself bisects through the city,” said Nguyen. “So it actually will be a more direct path for a lot of users to get from certain parts of the city, whether it’s from the wharf all the way out to Wilder State Park.”

Construction is slated to start in 2017 and is expected to take about a year to complete.

The city said it will continue working on the design and environmental permits.