MidPen is stepping in to renovate and then take ownership of Dirt Alpine… Arguably the route has been neglected by its current owners, San Mateo County, since it was built in 1895 for $7,216. The estimated $2.55 Million renovation will cure its erosion problems and convert most of its length to trail width. The work is described in the first 28 pages of this 300 page plan the District is now seeking comments on. We are very supportive and hope you will be too. As its the only bike accessible trail from the populated eastern half of the peninsula to the expanse of bike accessible open space areas along Skyline, its the most important trail on the peninsula. These improvements will insure its survival into the future. Most of the work will be above “the bypass” lots of repair/replacement to culverts, drainage improvements, regrading to prevent “a creek” from running down the center of the road in the winter and a complete redo of the “dam break” wash out about 2/3rds of the way up the hill. (see illustration above) Below the bypass they’ll build a new pair of retaining walls just inside the gate. These projects should be fully designed, permitted and constructed by the summer/fall of ’22. we are told the route will be closed for 3 months during the construction, so plan your out of area cycling vacations accordingly. This Winter MidPen plans to design a new, less steep, “bypass section” to be constructed, hopefully, in the summer of ’23. SVMTB lobbied for the inclusion of this route in the 2013 MidPen Vision plan, lobbed for its inclusion as a top funding priority in the 2014 measure AA Bond Measure and campaigned for the bond measure which passed by the slimmest of margins. Soon the work will begin.
