Eagle Walk Trail Closing For Construction
Friday, May 5th, 2023
Construction is set to being on a new trail system that will eventually connect Haig Mill Lake Park with downtown Dalton. To make way for construction, the Eagle Walk Trail off of Chattanooga Avenue along Mill Creek will be closed beginning May 10th. That day, paving contractor North Georgia Paving will begin to move their equipment on site to make final preparations for construction.
Caption: A map illustration shows the Eagle Walk Trail highlighted in yellow adjacent to Mill Creek and Chattanooga Avenue which will be under construction beginning next week
The first phase of paving and construction will create a 1.1-mile paved trail along Mill Creek. This will pave the existing Eagle Walk Trail and create an eight-foot wide paved trail from the park to the existing trail head on Chattanooga Avenue. Construction is expected to take between six and eight months and hopefully be concluded by the end of 2023. A sidewalk connection along Chattanooga Avenue between this new trail and the existing sidewalk connections adjacent to the Crown Mill area will also be built by the Public Works Department, but the timeline for that phase of the project is not yet finalized.
“The Mill Line plan was recommended by the Young Gamechangers program (in 2022),” City Administrator Andrew Parker said earlier this year. “One of them that has gained a tremendous amount of momentum and support is to look at continuing the improvements to sidewalks and look at potentially adding bike lanes from the Crown Mill area back to downtown to make that a safe and viable point of connectivity between the two.”
There are still plenty of trails in the Dalton area for residents and visitors to enjoy while the Eagle Walk Trail is under construction. The Parks and Recreation Department maintains trail systems at Mount Rachel as well as the Haig Mill Lake Park. There is also the Dalton Greenway trail connecting the Crown Mill area at Chattanooga Avenue with Selvidge Street. The Dalton State College trail system is also popular with hikers and runners.
