I-630 Trail Accessibility

In order to ride or walk the I-630 trail from McKinley to Mississippi, the trail user must enter the trail from McKinley (Fig. 1), cross Hughes St. (Figs. 2-4), and exit the trail at Mississippi (Fig. 5).  Improvements to access points and trail alignments would improve this corridor and increase use of the Midline (see below).

Figure 1.  A curb cut and ramp and removal of the signpost and wide sign would make this trail more usable for bicyclists and pedestrians.  Photo by Michael Sprague.

Figure 2.  Traffic is light (~3,100 ADT) at the intersection of Hughes and the I-630 trail.  Map from ArDOT.

Figure 3.  The spacing of the entrance and exit of the I-630 trail at Hughes doesn't align, creating a longer and more dangerous crossing of Hughes St. than is necessary.  Current bus stops here can increase the utility of Rock Region and the Midline.  

Figure 4.  This is a view of the western I-630 trail access from Hughes from the eastern trail access point (see also Fig. 3).  The trail west of Hughes has a crossing farther to the north to avoid the guardrail, so a trail realignment to create a straight crossing would have to be done on the trail to the east of Hughes.  Approximately eight inch high curbs and a large sign post also increase the challenge of this crossing.  Photo by Leland Couch.

Figure 5.  The trail and the crosswalk do not align at Mississippi either.  There is no access from the trail to the crosswalk.

Improvements to the I-630 trail access would increase the utility of the I-630 trail and increase the use of the proposed Midline.  Locations that would benefit from improvements include:

1) McKinley: curb cuts, ramp, a crosswalk, and removal of the dangerous signpost.

2) Hughes: curbcuts, ramps, a crosswalk, removal of signpost, slight realignment of the trail immediately east of Hughes to create a straight crossing, and installation of a bicycle/pedestrian crossing warning sign on the southern approach to this intersection where sight-lines are poor

3) Mississippi: signpost removal, fixing the pedestrian crosswalk button (it is not currently working) and aligning the trail to the crosswalk.