New Packard foot bridge connects two Warren parks
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WARREN -- Gary Angstadt said taking his dog Tanner for walks on Bullhead Riverwalk Trail off Tod Avenue NW just got a lot nicer now that the Packard Park Pedestrian Bridge over the Mahoning River has been reopened.
The former bridge closed in 2017 after an inspection by the engineering company MS Consultants revealed corrosion that opened up holes in the steel support beams. The decision was made to close the bridge and replace it rather than repair the old bridge, which went into service in the early 1980s.
The new, 279-foot, $1.5 million bridge installed by the Shook Co. is now open, a fact that makes Angstadt very happy because it makes it easier for him to walk Tanner on the Bullhead Riverwalk Trail, which was built in 2013.
If people are not familiar with Bullhead Riverwalk Trail and Bullhead Park, it may be because when the Packard Park Bridge closed, it eliminated one key way to get to Bullhead Park.
A dedication ceremony is planned at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
"I'm super happy it's back open," Angstadt said recently of the Packard Park Pedestrian Bridge. He and Tanner walked on the Bullhead trail Thursday and were heading back across the new bridge to their parking space in Packard Park when they were photographed for this story.
"The (Packard Park) bridge has been out for a while, and it made it harder for us to get to this side of the park, especially with the dog," said Angstadt, a west side Warren native who now lives in Champion.
"This is my favorite side of the park," he said the Bullhead area on the west side of the river.
Paul Makosky, Warren's director of engineering, planning and building, is also a Warren west side native and remembers playing in the area that is now Bullhead Park when he was a kid. He said one aspect of that area he likes is that with the elevation from the river up to Tod Avenue, Bullhead seems secluded even though homes might only be 150 feet away from the trail.
"It's tucked right into the river. It's a great spot," Angstadt agreed. "It's a spot to get away but not be too far away."
Makosky said he has found that when he mentions Bullhead Park, there are even city employees who say they have never been there.
Though Angstadt said he parks his car in Packard Park, there is a parking lot near the entrance to Bullhead Park on Tod Avenue. And a new asphalt trail from the parking lot down to the Bullhead trail has been added. The parking lot was built about four or five years ago after the city acquired the property nearly 10 years ago from the Trumbull County Land Bank.
Another improvement made in recent days was cutting back the foliage on the sides of the Bullhead Riverside trail to make it much wider, making it more attractive to walkers, Makosky said.
Although Bullhead Park and Packard Park were separated from each other for about nine years while the funding was secured and the new Packard Park Bridge was created, Angstadt said he thinks of the two parks to be one now.
COUNCIL MEMBER PRAISE
At last week's Warren City Council meeting, Councilwoman Helen Rucker, D, at-Large, had high praise for both new pedestrian footbridges in the city -- at Perkins and Packard parks. She said the new Perkins bridge is especially beautiful at night "when it's all lit up."
She called the new Packard Park bridge, "the beauty of the city. If you haven't seen that bridge, go to Packard Park and take a walk," especially starting at the northwest side, walking into Bullhead Park and across the new bridge into Packard Park. "It's really beautiful," she said.
Though corrosion damaged the former Packard Park bridge, the original piers and abutments were in good enough condition to be re-used. Eighty percent of the funding for the Packard Park Bridge replacement came from the U.S. Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program.
The other 20% came from Appalachian Community Grant Program funds, which came from federal American Rescue Plan funds distributed to 32 Appalachian counties in Ohio.
The new $3.1 million Perkins Park Pedestrian that connects Perkins Park to the Peninsula area of West Market Street is another ACGP project. Its dedication ceremony was Oct. 26.
A $1.1 million Federal Highway Administration grant was also used to make trail improvements along the Mahoning River at Perkins, Packard, Bullhead, Burbank and Lover's Lane parks about a decade ago, according to a 2014 annual report written by Makosky.