The Big Sioux trail loop was developed several decades ago to control flooding, but Sioux Falls continues to invest in the trail to connect inter-urban areas. This study includes planning and design processes, appropriate infrastructure, costs, timing, potential obstacles, design standards, implementation policies and funding. It is an aesthetically pleasing plan that presents several options for the trail with maps and graphics to complement it.
The core of this plan is evaluating trail alternatives and identifying a most feasible concept for eventual implementation. Therefore, the factors selected to evaluate alternatives are extremely important and reflect the values and perspectives of the trail development program. Because these criteria reflect different objectives, they are not consistent with each other: an option that may rank high on one objective may have a low rating for another. For example, one alternative may offer a superior trail user experience, but might involve acquisition of private property over the objection of property owners. The result is that the trail project, while desirable from one perspective, would probably never be accomplished. In the case of trail development, the most feasible alternative often represents the best balance of different attributes.
Published January 2011
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