DaytonDailyNews.com

It's sad but true: One of the region's most notable lifestyle amenities — its recreational trail system — is broken in five places around downtown Dayton by bridge construction, and will likely remain that way for at least two years.

That's a real problem for a city struggling to redefine itself and its downtown as a good place to live as well as work. Let's face it, Dayton needs every amenity it can muster if it wants to lure the "creative class" types that many see as the key to economic revitalization.

But bridge reconstruction projects on Monument Avenue, Stewart Street, Dunbar Street and Interstate 75 have closed trails in five places. As a result, the river corridor trails are closed from the Helena Street Bridge south to Stewart Street. (People can still ride northeast from RiverScape along the Mad River.) Ironically, a new 5-mile section of trail running north from Island MetroPark to the existing trail along the Great Miami at Rip Rap Road has been broken before its grand opening by a second I-75 bridge project over the Great Miami near Keowee Street.

Currently, no detours exist for that northern I-75 bridge or the Stewart Street bridge, so bicyclists just come to a barricade and aren't given any direction on how to proceed.

The problems have created frustration among cyclists.

Tom Recktenwalt, Webmaster for miamivalleytrails.org, the most complete Web site on the region's trails, is somewhat exasperated.

"Basically, I've been telling people, don't bother to try to ride your bike through downtown Dayton," he said. "You can't do it, because they've mucked it up for the next 18 months or so."

Dayton City Commissioner Nan Whaley is concerned about the lack of detours.

"You wouldn't leave cars hanging out there (without a detour) so I don't know why you'd leave bikes hanging out," she said.

Whaley said she and Mayor Rhine McLin looked into the problem and the city will work with the Miami Conservancy District to come up with a detour around the Stewart Street project.

"It's probably not going to be the prettiest detour or anything," she said. "But I still think we have to offer options on these bikes if we're serious about making them useful even during work on the bridges. I mean, you wouldn't do that to a car."

Meanwhile, Ohio Department of Transportation officials recently agreed to come up with a detour on the new section of trail north of town, said Joe Zimmerman, project manager for Five Rivers MetroParks.

Staff from the conservancy, the parks district and Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission met with Dayton traffic engineers late last month to talk about alternative on-street routes to use when the trails are closed by construction or high water. But city staff wants to make any alternative routes part of the downtown one-way, two-way street conversion project. That makes sense, but it won't become reality until next summer.

So if you're riding through Dayton on the trails, look for detour signs — or improvise.

Either way, you'll be riding on unmarked city streets.

Contact this reporter

at (937) 225-2393 or

kmccall@DaytonDailyNews.com.