Acorn Engineering was tasked with providing trail planning and design services for Portland Trails’ newly proposed Stroudwater Connector Trail, a multi-modal commuter trail that will run between outer Congress Street and Brighton Avenue in Portland all the way to Westbrook. The over-arching goal of the project is to enhance accessibility and connectivity across the over 3 miles of existing and proposed trail. The route utilizes a variety of path types, including forest segments, shared feeder streets, busy road crossings, a railroad crossing, and old haul roads to accommodate users of varying speeds and abilities to safely share the path.
The first phase of the design process involved site analysis to map and catalog existing trail barriers. Discontinuity across the trail can be attributed to areas of steep grading, physical barriers, restrictive easements, lack of crosswalks, inadequate way finding, confusing signage, wet surface conditions, and many other items. For the second phase, Acorn performed an “Options Analysis” to develop and evaluate potential alternatives at key connection points, based on feedback provided by the Team and the Client. Trail maps, barrier analyses, alternatives analyses, and technical details were assembled in a comprehensive booklet to help guide trail build out and funding acquisition for the Stoudwater Connector as well as future trail development across the greater Portland Trails network.
