Presque Isle visitors asked for patience while Multi-Purpose Trail, roads undergo repaving

Whether riding your bicycle on Presque Isle State Park's roads or Multi-Purpose Trail, you might have noticed a few bumps along the way.

Work is taking place to fix that.

Crews from Lindy Paving began work in June on the entire Multi-Purpose Trail and on roads from the park's entrance gate to the marina road. Their work on the $4.7 million project, which will also benefit walkers, runners, skaters and motorists, should be done in November, if not sooner, said Park Operations Manager Matt Greene.

What is being done to the Multi-Purpose Trail?

"We're working on rehabbing it," Greene said. "It really needed it."

He said no major work had been done to the 13.5-mile paved trail since 2013. After that, the trail was damaged in some spots during a number of high-water years.

Crews are repairing the base cement where needed and repaving the entire trail with bituminous pavement, he said.

Greene said visitors to the park will already find "fresh smooth new pavement" on some portions of the Multi-Purpose Trail.

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He said the end date for the contract is in November, but the work was a little ahead of schedule as of mid-July.

Funding for the project came from the federal American Recovery Plan via the state, Greene said.

Roadwork

The $4.7 million is also paying for base repairs and repaving of some park roads as well as parking lots, including at the three vistas along Presque Isle Bay. Greene said the Cookhouse parking lot, which is now dirt, will also be paved.

In addition to roads on the park's western end, Greene said, work will be done at some other spots, such as the curve near Sunset Point.

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"We know it's inconvenient," Greene said about the paving occurring during the park's busiest season.

But he said areas will reopen as soon as possible and asked people to be patient in exchange for the nice infrastructure that will be in place when the project is done.

Greene also reminded people to abide by road and trail closures, saying they were put in place for safety reasons as hot asphalt was being used. He said someone had already ignored a closure and ridden a bicycle in wet concrete.

Dana Massing can be reached at dmassing@timesnews.com.