After years of planning, a small sidewalk becomes a reality in Grand Junction
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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — At a quiet city council meeting in April, council members voted unanimously to spend $400,000 on a mile-long dirt patch along the side of Patterson Road.
The city bought the right to use the land from the Grand Valley Irrigation Company, and is currently designing a 10-foot-wide path that will be installed next spring.
That south side of Patterson currently has no sidewalk, though footprints, tire tracks and trash cover the dirt for a mile between 24 ½ Road and 25 ½ Road. On the north side of Patterson, a narrow sidewalk hugs the roadway, with no buffer from traffic that regularly passes at 45 miles per hour.
“This facility provides a concrete path, well separated to the south of the travel lane. So it will be much more comfortable for users of all abilities and ages and different sorts of devices on that [side.] Much more safely than what we have there along the north side,” said Trent Prall, engineering and transportation director for the City of Grand Junction.
According to Prall, the sidewalk, lighting and landscaping around it will cost $1 million. The path will include space for maintenance vehicles to pull over and access irrigation equipment. The $400,000 price tag is for the right of way access and an easement from the irrigation company.
The seven-figure cost for the project highlights how much money and time public infrastructure often requires, even for seemingly straightforward projects like a mile-long sidewalk.
A buffered sidewalk in this location has been on the city’s wish list since the 1990s. According to meeting minutes from January, 1992, the director of the community development, Bennett Boeschenstein, said “a trail system could be incorporated along the canal banks,” when explaining a long term plan for the area.
The 71-mile High Line Canal in Denver bustles with cyclists, bird watchers and dog walkers. Built in 1883, the City of Denver purchased it in 1924, but didn’t officially allow recreational access until 1970, according to History Colorado.
The main canal in Grand Junction dates back to the early 1880s. Grand Valley Irrigation Company has operated the canal since 1894.
Grand Valley Irrigation Company operates nearly 100 miles of canals throughout the valley, drawing from the Colorado River. The Independent Ranchmans’ ditch forks off from the main canals around Horizon Drive and meanders through town towards the Mesa Mall area, with a one-mile stretch right along Patterson Road.
In 2008, a city project piped and covered that section of the canal. The plan was to then build a sidewalk on top. Ten years later, it still hadn’t happened.
During the adoption of a transportation planning document in 2018 that called for the path, the irrigation company succinctly said “no,” according to the Daily Sentinel.
Concerns over safety, private property and trespassing come up at city meetings and letters to the editor right along with proposals to use the canal banks or roads for anything other than maintaining irrigation infrastructure. A 3-year-old girl drowned in part of the canal near 29 Road in 2020.
As this section of the canal is covered, there’s nothing to fall into. The 2008 piping of the canal was partially for liability concerns, but also helps the city manage stormwater, according to Prall. The two 90-inch pipes would help safely convey any excess water out of the mall area over to Leach Creek, which drains into the Colorado River.
At the April 16, 2025 meeting, council member Anna Stout, mayor Abe Herman, and city manager Mike Bennett praised the relationship between the irrigation company and the City of Grand Junction, describing years of stalled negotiations during previous attempts to work together on the infrastructure project.
“This has been a relationship that has been very difficult to cultivate for decades and to reach this point this evening, I don’t think it can be overstated how significant this is and how much we appreciate GVIC, the board, the work they’ve put in and the agreement we’ve reached with them,” said Stout at the meeting.
Mayor Herman, who Prall credits for leading the charge on the agreement, emphasised this sidewalk does not mean canal banks and access roads are open to the public. Only the section between 24 ½ and 25 ½ roads will be publicly accessible once the path is finished.
Prall said he wants to see this project completed before proposing any other new paths near canal infrastructure.
“I think it’s a real win-win, and I think it’s a good portent for future efforts. I look forward to seeing these types of agreements move forward across the valley,” said outgoing council member Randall Reitz, whose term ended in April.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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