Stevens Creek Trail, Mountain View

The Project

Stevens Creek Trail in the City of Mountain View is a planned six-mile long bicycle and pedestrian trail system that originates at San Francisco Bay adjacent to Shoreline Regional Park and traverses along Stevens Creek going over and under Route 101, Route 237, Moffett Blvd, Middlefield Road, Central Expressway/Caltrain, Dana Street, El Camino Real and along/over Route 85 eventually terminating at Mountain View High School. There are also several trail bridges over Stevens Creek connecting to the main trail system.

Mark Thomas has been involved with the planning, design and construction of the majority of this Stevens Creek Trail Project. Our project segments include the following:

Reach 3 is a two-mile bicycle/pedestrian Class I trail from Whisman Park & School to Dana Street. This 12-foot wide trail includes a new paved pathway, full landscaping, an undercrossing at Middlefield Road, a 1,000-foot long bike/pedestrian overcrossing spanning over Central Expressway/Caltrain tracks/Evelyn Street, and three other trail bridges over Stevens Creek.

Reach 4-A is an approximately 1.1-mile Class 1 bike and pedestrian trail system that runs from Dana Street to Yuba Drive and along the existing Caltrans Route 85 soundwall. Due to the limited space between Route 85 and Stevens Creek, tie-back and retaining walls were utilized to create a bench where the trail could be extended adjacent to the creek.

Reach 4, Segment 2 is approximately 1.0 mile long and will be conducted in two phases: Phase I will extend the trail system from El Camino Real to Sleeper Avenue with a new trail bridge over Stevens Creek. Phase II will connect to this new trail bridge and continue over Route 85 with a new POC bridge structure and terminate at Dale Avenue/Heatherstone Way.

The Challenges

Stevens Creek Trail encompassed environmentally-sensitive nature in both vegetation and wildlife habitat protection and crossings of Caltrain, JPB Railroad, City streets and State Route 85 Caltrans right of way. Creative design solutions, such as drop down flood gates, lookouts, special ESA fencing, retaining walls, etc. were developed to preserve these environmentally sensitive species and wildlife. Strong and effective coordination was required with the City of Mountain View, State Fish and Game, Federal Fish & Wildlife Services, Santa Clara Valley Water District, the Caltrain/JPB Railroad, the US Army Corps of Engineers and Caltrans.

The Results

All permits were secured in timely manner to allow construction to proceed. The trail has become very popular with bicyclists and pedestrians.