Trail Sections

- Major Road Crossings
- Lampman Park
- Bannister Drain
- Airport Road
- Aronson & Alkali Creek
- Shiloh Underpass
- King Avenue East
- Swords Park
- Rimrock Road

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Latest Trail News

Main Street Underpass Update -- August 25, 2010

As of Wednesday, August 25th, the Main Street underpass and culvert is now 108 feet long which is just over half way through. Four Beers excavating ran into an issue this week that slowed them down a bit. The fill used when Main Street was built contained concrete chunks and other rubble that made the soil a bit skiddish, so they have had to do a lot of “hand” digging. Despite the delays, they’re still moving right along and hope to see “the light at the end of the tunnel” by the end of September.

Main Street Underpass Tunnel is growing

Billings Trails: Make the Connection Public Radio's Transportation Nation--August 12, 2010
Billings Trail System Continues to Expand Billings Gazette--August 11, 2010
On the Move - Billings trails featured in the fall 2010 Rails to Trails Magazine
BikeNet Aims to Increase Awareness of Fund that Helps Parks Billings Gazette--July 15, 2010

THE HOLE IS GROWING: Main Street Underpass Update
August 2010: The Main Street Underpass is well underway and it's an interesting project to keep an eye on. Four Beers Inc. out of Columbus is boring the hole and placing the culvert. This is all part of a normal day’s work for them as they typically bore tunnels for Stillwater Mining.

Since it's important to stay clear of the construction site for now, here’s an update on the process and progress. Outside of the hill they have a laser set up that pinpoints the exact location and keeps them on track to come out in the right place on the opposite side of Main Street. At the top of where the culvert will be placed, they have a special machine that drives in 20 foot long rebar which helps to hold the earth and road in place as they dig out for the culvert. Numerous pieces of rebar are driven into place before they start digging out at the top of the opening. Once there is enough dirt cleared at the top of the opening, they bolt a section of the steel culvert to the previous section and continue to ring out the dirt and place the sections of culvert until the full ring is formed. Will Robbins, City of Billings Project Engineer, said that when they are up to full steam, they can place 8 sections of culvert a day.

If everything continues to go as planned they should have the hole and culvert in place by mid-September. There will still be lots of finishing work to do including installing lighting and finishing the trail through the culvert. What a tremendous connection this will make for the trail network!

laser beam pinpoints the exact location and keeps them on course worker dragging 20' rebar to support the earth as they dig
culvert sections ready to bolt together this culvert is almost to the line of traffic on Main Street

A national network of bike trails? It could happen:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126263488

BikeNet March/April 2010 Newsletter - Sign up to receive your copy by email by entering your email address in the box on the left.

Billings, MT makes Bicycling magazine's Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities list!

Trail Dedication

Summer 2009 marked the completion of major trail segments including several that made vital connections in the Billings trail network. An enthusiastic group of bikers, walkers and general onlookers gathered on Thursday, October 22, 2009 to dedicate and celebrate.

Crowd Gathers to Celebrate Trails

Starting in Lillis Park at the new bike/ped crossing on Broadwater Avenue, Chamber representatives passed out noisemakers and decorations and Mayor Ron Tussing, Chamber President John Brewer and various news reporters greeted the eager crowd. The Broadwater crossing was made possible through CTEP funding and local matching dollars. The Billings Chamber Trail Blazers were on hand to officiate the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Trail Blazers Officiate the Ribbon Cutting

Then everyone headed out to experience the newly connected trail stretching safely through some of Billings' heaviest traffic: down the previously completed Descro Park trail and the safe crossing at Central, through Stewart Park, crossing Monad at the new safe crossing, continuing on Lampman Park's new trail segment and across the new bike/ped crossing at King connecting to the new Bannister Drain trail segment south of King.

If the directions are mind boggling, think of it this way: bikers made it from Lillis Park to Pierce Flooring faster than any car.

Candi Beaudry - Planning and Community Service Department Director; Darlene Tussing - Alternate Modes Coordinator; and Robin Hanel - wife of Billings' new mayor

Another dedication ceremony was held on the new trail segment south of King including a ribbon ceremony with the Trail Blazers, refreshments provided by Costco, a drummer from the Senior High Drum Corps and more thank you's. If you missed the dedication in person or on the news, here are some of the major people and groups we have to thank:

Montana's Congressional Team
Montana Department of Transportation - CTEP funding
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks - Recreational Trail Grants
City Council members and County officials who helped guide the process
City Staff who worked on these projects including:
- KEN ARD Project Engineer on Monad Crossing & Lampman
- CHRIS HERTZ Project Engineer on the Bannister Trail & King Crossing
Sanderson Stewart (Engineering Consulting) Danielle Scharf
CMG (Construction Firm) Kevin McGovern

Drum Corps Accompaniment These donors are also worthy of special note:

Ryan Restaurant Corporation - trail segment along Famous Dave’s restaurant
Pierce Flooring - gift of land for the corridor
Gainan’s (Chuck Gainan and family) - gift of land and future landscaping and maintenance of their trail corridor
Home Depot - gift of land
Dave and Linnea Veeder and Scott & Audrey McRae - gift of land and construction of trail by 24th Street West (section that started this area)
BikeNet - $25,000 for Lampman and $25,000 for Bannister trails**

** Funds raised at BikeNet's annual Ales for Trails at the Depot enabled BikeNet to contribute at this level. A special thank you to CTA Architects and The Spoke Shop for their consistent and considerable support of Ales and Billings trails.

CTA Logo

2009 has been a year of incredible progress for the trail system. And in the marketing department, the Chamber of Commerce has developed a new brand -- "Billings - Montana’s Trailhead.” The Chamber has become a strong advocate for the trail network and they are assisting in advancing the trail system in many ways.

Featured 2009 Trail Projects:

New at-grade crossings on Broadwater, Monad and King provide safe travel by trail (whether it be on bike or on foot) from the neighborhoods along Broadwater and Descro Park all the way to some of the restaurants and businesses along 24th Street West south of King. Celebrate with dinner at Old Chicago or Dos Machos without using your car!
In the Heights, new sections of trail are being built with the Aronson and Airport Road projects (complete with underpasses to insure connectivity) along with plans for a new trail extension in Swords Park.
The Rimrock Road trail section is finshed and ready to connect to the new Shiloh Road trail (in progress).
New work has been done on a trail section on King Avenue East.

Check out these developments firsthand by clicking on the links in "Trail Sections" above.

2009 Trail Census

Volunteers counted trail users on Thursday, May 14 and Sunday May 17 in Billings' semi-annual Trail Census. The Census documents the amount and type of use the trails get and the numbers are used to compare useage over time and to write grants to build new trails. Weather can be a factor as is the time of day and day of the week. The census takes a variety of conditions into account to provide an accurate sampling. Both soft surface and hard surface trails were counted this year and 2009 showed another increase in walkers over 2007 numbers. Many thanks to the volunteers who counted and for the positive feedback received from trail users. This information can help make Billings trails even better! 2009 Trail Census Results.

Billings Awarded Bike-Friendly Status

The League of American Bicyclists has designated Billings as a Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) at the bronze level. The League awards this four-year, multi-level designation to communities that have made impressive, measurable efforts to integrate bicyclists. Out of 51 applications, Billings was one of 10 selected. All Bicycle Friendly Communities enjoy quality of life benefits to which many other communities aspire. The BFC program is providing a helpful road map for communities to make that transition.

The Billings designation was based on exemplary efforts toward "raising support and awareness for bicycling through a broad array of bicycle-oriented events which use the outdoor and recreational amenities unique to the region."

“It is important to recognize communities as they begin to build bicycle friendliness into their network. But a designation only goes to communities with established records in two or more of the five categories,” said Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists.

The five categories reviewers consider are:

Education: Does the community have systems in place to train children and adult cyclists?
Engineering: Are bicyclists included in the city’s transportation plan?
Enforcement: Do police officers understand and enforce bicyclists’ rights and responsibilities?
Encouragement: Does the community participate in Bike Month, offer bike rodeos, host community bike rides, or otherwise encourage cycling?
Evaluation: Does the community have methods in place to ensure their bicyclist programs are making a difference?

The only other Montana Bicycle Friendly Community is Missoula, designated since 2003 and now at the silver level.

National 2008 Bicycle Friendly Community Press Release

More information about the Bicycle Friendly Community Program