San Luis Obispo County held a ground breaking ceremony last week for an extension of the Bob Jones Trail.
Currently, the walking and biking trail starts in Avila Beach at Ontario Road and stretches down to the coast. The county’s plan is to build out the path, so it will extend from San Luis Obispo to the ocean.
Construction on the project has been stalled for years, in part because of issues securing land.
Helene Finger, president of the Friends of the Bob Jones Trail, started work on this project decades ago.
“My husband was commuting by bike and it really wasn't safe,” Finger said. “I thought, ‘Oh, the Bob Jones Trail. Everybody loves the Bob Jones Trail.’”
Finger is a civil engineer, and she thought she could use those skills to push the project forward.
“Little did I know, it would take 20 years,” she said. “So many people stepped up to make this happen, so I’m really, really excited.”
According to Finger, the pathway will be totally separate from cars, so that “people can walk and roll from San Luis Obispo to Avila Beach.”
The next phase of construction will build out the trail from the Octagon Barn to Clover Ridge Lane in San Luis Obispo.
San Luis Obispo County, which has budgeted nearly $16 million for the project, awarded Souza Construction an almost $10.5 million contract, funded through a grant from the California Transportation Commission.
The first segment is set to be completed in 2028, and the final phase of construction will connect that portion to the already existing trail in Avila Beach.
