Mitigating
the
Remediation plan restores balanced ecosystem to historic Wyoming lake
O n any given day community members in Cheyenne , Wyoming , convene in and around Holliday Park for a variety of recreational uses . Some bring picnic lunches , others use the space to exercise , and most just simply enjoy the views of historic Lake Minnehaha .
But it wasn ’ t long ago that the now peaceful , picturesque body of water looked more like split pea soup – and smelled putrid .
“ We had a lot of citizen complaints about the smell ,” said Rick Parish , the City ’ s director of Parks and Recreation . “ It was just an eyesore located in the center of the City , which was a real concern because it ’ s our second most popular park for usage .”
By Jennifer Schmidt
6│TRENDS
Connector provides safe passage to park
The project also made travel safer
for vehicles. Hendon explained that
two formerly skewed side streets on
the south end of Holliday Park were
realigned to form 90-degree angles
where they intersect with Nationway,
improving driver visibility.
Ayres coordinated with the Wyoming
Department of Transportation to shut
down the highly traveled Lincolnway
for two-and-a-half days during
installation of the underpass.
A
round the same time the
conceptual study for Lake
Minnehaha’s ecological
mitigation was under development,
additional Ayres staff were hired to
design a pedestrian underpass at the
south end of Holliday Park.
Now complete, the underpass is
making for safer travel across a busy,
four-lane state highway and nonstop travel from Holliday Park to the
Greater Cheyenne Greenway.
“It’s sort of the big draw, the big
greenspace in the heart of the
community,” said Jeff Wiggins, senior
planner for the City of Cheyenne Parks
and Recreation Department, referring
to Holliday Park. “We have a quarter
to a third of our population working
in the downtown area, and the park
is a gathering point for the entire
community – so it was an important
destination for us to be able to get to
with our greenway system.”
Cheyenne’s greenway system weaves
its way throughout the City. Before
the underpass’ installation, though,
trail users looking to enter the park
were stopped in their tracks when
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