Encroaching tree roots on sections of the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway are causing potentially hazardous cracks in the bike path’s asphalt.
“The larger raised cracks are a safety hazard because they can jar people’s hands off the bikes, or upset rollerbladers’ balance, causing accidents,” Bob Stoll, maintenance chair of the bike path committee, said at the Athens County Commissioners meeting Tuesday.
The bike path committee will be in charge of removing these roots.
“There were basically three options recommended,” Stoll said. “Those were to cut the trees, to put in a root barrier — which is a barrier that goes down into the ground from the bikeway about 12 inches to prevent root growth — and then the third was to cut the roots.”
Because of cost and convenience, Stoll said the best option is to cut the roots of offending trees and then repair the pavement.
He recommended fixing the path using a scarifier, which is a machine that grinds the surface of the pavement to smooth it out, and then having others cut the roots and seal the cracks.
Stoll said the plan to repair the bike path is based on similar maintenance in Little Miami State Park, located between Dayton and Cincinnati, where four volunteers treated 30 cracks a day and covered 40 miles in four days.
However, the maintenance strategy used in Little Miami State Park is not guaranteed to work everywhere because volunteers may not be able to locate some of the roots, Stoll said, but the bike path has plenty for workers to try to locate.
“There are over a hundred,” he said. “When I actually made the count, there were a fair number of them.”
The maintenance would probably take place around June when students are gone for the summer because “there’s still traffic, but the asphalt is a little easier to work with,” said Rich Campitelli, the director of the Athens’ parks and recreation department.
The appropriate equipment will most likely be rented from a local company, which Commissioner Chris Chmiel said he prefers. Chmiel also encouraged the bike path committee to find local volunteers to operate the equipment.
A machine used to dig holes and find tree roots can be rented for about $150 per day, Stoll said.
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