Council authorizes bids for Shaker Boulevard pedestrian trail after design revisions

Pepper Pike, Ohio — The Pepper Pike City Council voted June 24 to authorize the city engineer to proceed with bid documents for the Shaker Boulevard Pedestrian Trail, a multi-thousand-foot project that required additional design work to avoid utilities, minimize grading and protect mature landscaping.

City Engineer Don Sheehy told council that roughly 80% of the trail alignment fits cleanly within the planned right of way but that several sections required extra design iterations “where we really had to work around existing utility poles, some landscaping or other terrain features, and some grade issues,” particularly between Bolingbrook and the bridge over Upper Creek.

Sheehy said the trail will mainly follow the south side of Shaker Boulevard, include five-foot sidewalks with a six-inch curb on the inner edge to reduce grading impacts on adjacent front lawns, and widen to seven feet adjacent to the bridge where the path will be poured close to the bridge wall. He said the project is longer than the South Woodland project — “I think this is 7,000 feet” — and gave a rough engineer estimate in the “around $850,000” range.

Council members asked about tree impacts, retaining-wall needs and how the design would appear in front of an older farmhouse at the corner of Bolingbrook and Shaker; Sheehy said the team had tried to keep the trail as far from private property as possible and avoid larger trees. The council discussed aesthetics, maintenance concerns with decorative options, and the trade-offs between minimizing grading and preserving landscaping.

The council approved a motion authorizing the city engineer to commence the bid process. Sheehy told members contractors interested in other city packages had already attended a recent pre-bid meeting and that the city expects to advertise the project for bid in the coming weeks.