Plans to build the final and most challenging segment of Onondaga Lake’s Loop the Lake trail are moving forward. The 2.3-mile pathway would connect Onondaga Lake Park to Syracuse’s Inner Harbor.
The trail traverses some difficult terrain, including environmentally sensitive areas and dense urban infrastructure. This all requires multiple approvals from the state and federal levels. The county’s transportation commissioner Martin Voss told legislators they’re trying to tip-toe around these complex areas.
“We literally are doing ballet on this to avoid icky spots that we don’t want to touch like gas lines, utilities, sewer pipe, railroad tracks, highway on-ramps, and the salt ponds,” he said at a facilities committee meeting last week. “We’re going to build a plank boardwalk over the salt ponds because those are historic feature that you can’t disturb.”…