New trail segment will complete 5-mile pedestrian and bicycle loop in south Fayetteville

Photo: Todd Gill, Fayetteville Flyer

A new trail segment will soon create a continuous 5-mile loop in south Fayetteville.

Construction is currently underway on a project that will extend Tsa La Gi Trail from Razorback Road to a dead end in the trail about 600 feet to the west.

Once linked up, the trail will have a continuous path to Town Branch Trail which runs south and east to Frisco Trail at Walker Park.

Matt Mihalevich, the city’s trails coordinator, said the 5-mile trail loop through southern Fayetteville is being branded as the “So Fay Loop”.

Map: Fayetteville Flyer

Developers of a new apartment building called The Marshall are building the new trail segment as part of the construction work just south of the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Razorback Road. One of the conditions of approval for the complex was that the developers build the missing section of the trail across their property. As part of that agreement, the city has required that the trail be open by the time the apartments are ready for occupancy later this summer.

The city is also in a cost-share agreement with the developers for the installation of a pedestrian hybrid beacon crossing signal at Razorback Road. The City Council approved that agreement in March.

Another recently approved project will reroute Tsa La Gi trail from the north side of a road called Indian Trail to the south side of the street where the University of Arkansas is currently building a 12-court tennis complex.

The trail currently runs along the north side of the road and crosses several restaurant driveways. The 725-linear-foot re-route will move the trail crossing away from the intersection and run through the trees by the tennis complex to bypass the Chick-fil-A and Sonic driveways.

The City Council this week agreed to pay $97,030 to the University of Arkansas for construction of the 12-foot-wide re-route.

Mihalevich said the re-route work should be completed by the end of the year, but the full 5-mile loop should be ready when the apartment complex opens in late July or early August.

Source: City of Fayetteville