A bid opening for the Kewash Nature Trail spur is less than a month away.

Washington County Conservation Executive Director Steve Anderson informed the conservation board that all the plans are ready for a Department of Transportation conducted bid opening on May 15. The project involves creating a trail spur that connects the Kewash Trail to the Kirkwood Regional Center and paving the trail from Highway 1 to the Crooked Creek Bridge.

Anderson mentioned talks of a project to coincide with the spur, “We’ve got dialogues going with Kirkwood towards allowing us to put a trailhead right on the Kirkwood site, including some sidewalk to go on up there and a bike rack, and even a little shelter. So that may end up being just a beautiful trailhead as part of this whole project.”

Anderson says the trailhead would be a separate project to be bid out at a later time so as to not conflict with the federal Transportation Alternatives Program grant they received for the trail. Work is expected to begin this year, which also received a $120,000 grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation last December.