MERIT AWARD

Represents superior accomplishment in the profession of landscape architecture.

Red Butte Gardens - Six Bridges Trail

PROJECT STATEMENT

This project involved the design and development of an accessible nature trail located along Red Butte Creek within Red Butte Garden and Arboretum on the University of Utah Campus in Salt Lake City. The ADA accessible trail project is designed to bring Red Butte Garden guests and university students through this untouched natural stream gorge that was previously inaccessible to visitors. The project consists of approximately 900 feet of meandering trail that includes flexible porous paving for at-grade trail segments, three elevated trail sections, six pedestrian bridges, five interpretive waysides, and two observation platforms with stairways connecting users to other trail segments within the garden. The project also features 300 linear feet of streambank restoration, removal of concrete debris and restoration of upland habitat, and native riparian-wetland habitat plantings.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

The Six Bridges Trail project is located in the eastern foothills above Salt Lake City at Red Butte Garden on the University of Utah Campus. Design and construction of the meandering creek-side trail has been a master planning goal for Red Butte Garden for nearly two decades. The project features a flexible porous pavement surface for at-grade trail segments that allows all precipitation to infiltrate naturally into the native soil subsurface, resulting in no surface runoff at the site. The permeable pavement is comprised of stone aggregate and a non-toxic binder that is mixed with shredded and recycled rubber tires which naturally grow a beneficial bacteria to help clean the infiltrating water. No impervious surfaces were created as part of the project.

Structures along the Six Bridges Trail include three elevated steel trail segments that traverse existing jurisdictional wetlands, six steel pedestrian bridges that clear-span Red Butte Creek and is associated floodplain, and two steel observation platforms that provide accessible overlooks from adjacent trail systems and opportunities for visitors to enter or leave the trail from above the Red Butte Canyon gorge. All steel structures were manufactured using weathering steel to help them blend with the surrounding natural environment, and they feature weathering steel grated decking to allow natural light and precipitation to reach the creek and plants beneath.

The design team worked diligently with University of Utah personnel to obtain the required federal, state, and local environmental permits for this highly visible, context sensitive project. Other project work tasks completed by the design team over the 6-year design period included performing comprehensive natural resource site inventory and analyses, creating and implementing a hydraulic model to ascertain flood-flow and floodplain elevations, developing design concepts to secure private donor funding, preparing comprehensive construction documents, and facilitating construction administration and oversight services.

The project design is respectful of one of the best remaining examples of naturally functioning riparian habitat that exists along Red Butte Creek allowing safe access for university teaching and research activities. Heavily eroded sections of streambank were restored with a combination of tree rootwads and boulders that were removed during construction. This natural bio-engineering technique helps to provide long-term stability of the streambank where discarded concrete debris was removed, and the submerged tree rootwads that overhang the water’s edge create important fish habitat for the endangered Bonneville Cutthroat Trout that inhabits the creek. Natural boulder retaining walls and interpretive waysides with benches were constructed using locally sourced and hand-selected sandstone to mimic natural outcrops within Red Butte Canyon and the Red Butte Creek gorge. All disturbed areas were revegetated using native tree, shrub, grasses, and forb seedings and plantings.