Closed all summer due to sewer construction work, the stretch of TART Trail that runs parallel to Parsons Road could reopen as soon as tomorrow, TART Director of Strategic Engagement Brian Beauchamp tells The Ticker.

Beachamp says a project manager told TART this week that “if everything goes as planned, the trail along Parsons will be open to the public this Thursday,” October 15. “The asphalt is completed, and they are now working on restoring the edges and adjacent land,” Beauchamp adds of the trail.

The closure is the result of a partnership between Easy Bay and Acme townships to replace a corroded sewer line that carries all the wastewater for both townships to the treatment plant near Boardman Lake. The line in question starts at East Bay’s pump station near the intersection Indian Trail Boulevard and Pine Grove Avenue, and then runs west along the Parsons Road segment of the TART Trail. Installed in 1974, the aging pipe was nearing the end of its usable life and even suffered a break in recent years, hence the need for the replacement. This summer’s project kept the old line in service while contractors built a new pipe parallel to the existing one.

The project called for an extended closure of the roughly 1.7 miles of TART Trail that runs from Three Mile Road to Hastings Street. Trail users were detoured through nearby neighborhoods for the duration of the closure. Contractors had to remove the entire stretch of trail to allow for the work, even though TART just rebuilt much of that same span of trail (from Three Mile to Airport Access Road) in 2021.

UPDATE: Chris Kushman, TART's trail planning and management director, says TART was informed on Wednesday "that there was an issue with the asphalt" on the newly-repaved Parsons trail, "which will need to be corrected with additional paving work." Kushman says TART has not been given an updated schedule for when the trail might reopen.