Regression....to hoping.

The river path is a resource.....sometimes for runners, sometimes for cyclists, and sometimes for less desirable locals.  It is however, a resource (even infrastructure) and a really nice option if you need to travel between Reno and Sparks without using a car.  It is worth protecting and repairing and making every attempt to keep it up.  It's not that hard.  A phone call to the right place can go a long way. I still am impressed that one call to the Parks Department resulted in the number of lights working along the path going from 47% to over 90%!

Not everyone realizes this.  And in this case I mean these guys:

They were pretty good on the surface....they had ped/bike detour signs and took down the closure when they weren't actively working on the site.  However, their attention to detail on the reconstruction of the path leaves a lot to be desired. 

The work they did required a trench to be cut across the path and then the northern section of the path to have about 12-16 inches cut away.  Presumably to get access to some pipe, wire, etc.  They then should have back filled to a level grade and patched their work with fresh compacted and rolled asphalt.  They kind of did this.....

Except that they neglected to back fill to an adequate grade, lay the asphalt at the correct temperature, compact the asphalt roll it smooth, etc.  The result is a patch that is below grade (a noticeable bump) that will only compact further with time, the asphalt they did lay is already crumbling as you can see in the photos and has a large number of small open holes.  So they used too little asphalt and didn't compact it properly. 

In addition the strip they "replaced" along the northern edge of the trail is seriously graded (sloping) to the north.  An inattentive or inexperienced person catching this edge could easily be angled into the loose pea gravel and then down the river bank in a rather unfashionable method.   It's also about as smoothly rolled as a motocross track.

So all the details aside....we shouldn't have to tolerate this type of second class quality on our paths.  We wouldn't tolerate it if they guys rebuilding interstate 80 left us with this type of infrastructure!  Why is it ok to treat the non vehicle infrastructure in this way?

Hopefully, it's not.  Hopefully, a call to the Parks Department will have these guys back on site to fix their initial mess.  So I guess here's to hoping!