Fate of flooded Arroyo trail uncertain

City officials cross their fingers when they talk about the Arroyo Colorado Hike and Bike Trail, submerged for about a month under swift-flowing floodwater.

“We’re uncertain as to the condition of the trail,” Jeff Lyssy, the city’s parks superintendent, said. “We’re on a wait-and-see type mode. When the water recedes, we’ll know.”

The floodway’s currents could damage the trail, City Engineer Ponciano Longoria said.

“Being under water is one thing, but the currents are another. The currents have been pretty fast,” Longoria said.

“It was designed to withstand being under water for a certain length of time,” he said. But he said he didn’t have information readily available to determine the length of time the trail could withstand submersion.

The popular $1 million trail with three bridges that connect four city parks became submerged after the International Boundary and Water Commission released floodwater into the arroyo, which is part of the region’s floodway system.

The IBWC last month began releasing floodwaters from Anzalduas Dam into the floodway system after Hurricane Alex and other storms hit northern Mexico.

Officials are trying to determine the total volume of water released since early July, Sally Spener, IBWC spokeswoman in El Paso, said.

City officials plan to pay for any repairs to the trail with money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Longoria said.

“There are a lot of questions,” Lyssy said. “How long will there be water on the bridge? That is going to be a variable as to what condition the trail will be in.”

The IBWC planned to stop releasing water into the floodway this past week, Spener said.

“It could be a couple of weeks for the flows to fully make it out of the floodway system,” she said.

City officials believe the three bridges remain intact, Lyssy said.

Steel anchor bolts clamp the bridges’ galvanized steel trusses to concrete pilings driven 30 feet into the ground, officials said at the time the trail opened in 2000.

While Lyssy said he thinks the bridges will remain in place, it is possible that the flooding washed out the bridges’ decking.

“We’re probably going to have to switch those out,” he said of the wooden planks.

Officials didn’t know the extent of damage along the two-mile ribbon of asphalt that straddles the arroyo’s sloping banks, Lyssy said.