Trail Sections |
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- 25th St. Pedestrian/Bike Bridge - Descro Park - Famous Dave's - Lake Hills Drive - Riverfront - Shiloh Underpass - Stewart Park & The Big Ditch - Swords Park - The Midland - TransTech |
Swords Park
The Swords Park Trail offers another venue besides recreation and the outdoor experience of beautiful vistas of the City and the Yellowstone Valley below. If you venture there in the spring, keep your eye up close and personal to catch the beautiful array of spring wildflowers that adorn the trail on either side of the corridor. With our exceptionally wet spring this year, the lovely spring ladies were out in their best attire.
Fall 2005
The BikeNet group placed several benches and picnic tables along the corridor for users to enjoy. The trail was dedicated the end of June and The construction crews have been out for a couple of weeks now and despite weather related delays. C&S has made considerable progress in grading the trail and restoring eroded areas within the construction perimeters of the trail. It is shaping up to be a true showcase of the trail system in the Billings community. With it’s prime location on top of the Rims, it provides beautiful vistas of the Yellowstone River Valley, the Beartooth and Pryor Mountains in the horizon as well as the City of Billings below and in the Heights. This trail will truly be the “Signature” trail that helps define the multi-use paths in the Billings community.
At the January 26th meeting, the City Council held a public hearing in regards to the Swords Park Trails Plan. After the hearing, the Council approved to proceed with the Swords Park Trail Plan, but voted that they wanted to retain the current vehicular access to the park on Black Otter Trail. The original Park Master draft plan had recommended closure of some of the vehicular access to the park with the trail then using some of the current roadway alignment. With this current vote to leave all of the roadway open, a portion of the trail on the eastern end will need to be rerouted so it will still be separate from vehicular traffic. Hopefully, with this approval of the trail plan, we will be able to move forward with the construction of the Swords Park Trail during this coming construction season. Summer 2003  The Department of Transportation had additional state MACI (Montana Air Congestion Initiative) funds that needed to be used for non-motorized development to help eliminate or prevent air congestion problems. These dollars have been made available for the development of the trail system in Swords Park. The $666,666.00 in MACI requires a local match that was designated as part of the 1999 GO Bond Issue. The $153,584 matching dollars will also apply for the match towards a $35,000 Recreational Trails Program that we also are receiving for the Swords Park Trail. A Swords Park/Black Otter Trail Committee has been meeting since February  2001 to help implement the plan of redeveloping Swords Park. Although there isn’t money available at this time to do the park restoration, we have contracted with Sandy Fischer of EDAW and HKM to do the design and construction of the Swords Park Trail. As part of the widening of Airport Road, several bike/pedestrian crossings along with the connector pieces of trail will be included in that project, but the earliest that construction could take place for the roadway would be in 2005. The alignment study for the trail has been completed and construction of the main section of the Swords Park Trail should still take place this year. By working on all of these projects simultaneously, there has been greater coordination between all of the plans so we should end up with a win-win situation. |
Spring 2007 
extensive use. It is a beautiful section of trail as it meanders across the Rims and provides spectacular vistas of the City and the Yellowstone RiverValley.
runs from the west end of the park by 27th St. to where Black Otter Trail splits. Eventually the City of Billings hopes to connect this section of trail to the east end of the park towards Boothill Cemetary. It will also connect to the north to the pedestrian underpass that will be built as part of the Airport Road redevelopment project linking into the Alkali Creek area and the trail that is being built as part of the Alkali Creek Road project. Although a route has not been determined, it is hoped that a link will also be made to the existing trail along MetraPark with a safer crossing of Main Street and providing a continuous trail system in the area.
