City of Yelm celebrates extension of Prairie Line Trail to bridge

The City of Yelm celebrated the 2 ½-mile extension of the Prairie Line Trail with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, June 12.

Mayor Joe DePinto, along with other Yelm city officials, Rep. Andrew Barkis, and representatives from the Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO), the Nisqually Land Trust and the city Parks Advisory Committee all attended.

The trail is currently in Phase 2B of the planned extension, which will eventually connect to Pierce County.

“It’s awesome to get to this point,” Public Works Director Cody Colt said. “We extended another 2 ½ miles of trail, all the way to the river now, which is pretty cool. We’re currently designing the bridge portion of the trail, and that will take us over into Pierce County. When it’s all said and done, we’ll have a walkable trail into Pierce County, which is pretty awesome.”

Colt added that Phase 2B of the project will extend the trail onto a trestle bridge and over the Nisqually River. It is funded by an RCO grant. SCJ Alliance is designing the project with the help of Sargent Engineers.

“The hope is that we can start constructing that in the fall or winter and open it up around the same time,” Colt said. “So, hopefully, we’ll be doing a ribbon cutting this time next year for the bridge.”

Once the bridge portion of the trail is complete, the City of Yelm will construct one final extension of the Prairie Line Trail, which will provide an outlet in Roy. From there, Pierce County will hook up to the Prairie Line Trail and eventually connect it to Tacoma’s side of the same trail.

Colt said the City of Yelm’s Public Works Department will continue working on other projects throughout 2024 and into 2025, including upgrading Cochrane Park. The upgrades, Colt said, will include a lighted fountain and a gazebo so the park can host weddings. The department is currently working to get the upgrade plans approved.

As well, Colt said the Public Works Department will soon begin design on a planned veterans memorial near Mill Road and state Route 507.

“The plan is to have a parking lot entry area with flags and some marble areas where you can read about each branch of service,” Colt said. “There will be signs and flags of each of the branches, along with a reflection walk around the pond.”

The reflection walk will honor each war in which the United States of America has been involved, and it will remember, celebrate and memorialize veterans of Yelm and surrounding areas.

“This will all be brand new. We’re in the early, early phases. We’re coming up with conceptuals, and we’ll put the budget in next year for the actual engineering, design and construction portions done,” Colt said. “We’re always doing little maintenance projects here and there, but those are the big projects going on next year.”