Work on Little River Park is advancing, and final design steps for a new Ridge Creek Trail are moving toward public bidding, city officials said during the Oct. 20 Woodstock City work session.

City project manager Mr. Borden told the mayor and council that crews have installed piles for the park boardwalk, begun placing deck boards, and poured nearly 500 cubic yards of concrete for trail sections. He said the contractor expects to finish curb, gutter and parking-lot paving by the end of the year after completing piping, lighting and irrigation work. "We have some bridges that will be here the December," Borden said, adding the bridge for the woodland connection will require two cranes and about one week to set in place.

The update included photos and site descriptions showing graded trail segments, pilings and marsh matting used to protect wetlands during heavy-equipment work. Borden said about three-quarters of the linear trail has been graded and that crews have used marsh matting in the boardwalk area "because this is wetlands area, we can't have the equipment directly on top of the ground because it would harm the wetlands." He said a contractor called ICAN has been working roughly 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on site and that the project is on an 18-month schedule.

Separately, staff presented preliminary plans for the Ridge Creek (Rube's Creek) Trail. Melissa Siegmund, who led the e-bike discussion later in the meeting and summarized staff guidance from community development, said Falcon Design has submitted preliminary plans and environmental materials and staff are confident permitting is attainable. She said staff spoke with Falcon earlier the same day and would begin preparing bid documents. "Preliminary, we'd like to try to maybe get this out December," Siegmund said; allowing a 30-day bid period would put likely bids in mid-January, she added.

The Ridge Creek route described in the presentation follows the creek bed, crosses the creek, passes under Georgia Transmission lines through wetlands with a boardwalk and a bridge into Springfield Park. Staff said geotechnical work is underway to size footings for the bridge and that the trail will be constructed at-grade to limit permitting issues with the transmission owner.

Council members thanked staff for progress and noted site cleanliness and traffic impacts. No formal votes or budget actions were taken at the work session; staff provided the updates for council information and said follow-up items will return as needed.

Project background: Little River Park includes a linear trail, a boardwalk through wetlands, bridges and a woodland open space area with a dog park site; Ridge Creek Trail will link neighborhoods to Springfield Park via a creek-side multiuse trail. Both projects still require routine construction coordination, permitting and final contract management steps before public completion.