St. Petersburg breaks ground on Pinellas Trail extension through Childs Park

ST. PETERSBURG — The city has broken ground on an extension of the Pinellas Trail that will cut through the Childs Park neighborhood toward the Sunshine Skyway bridge.

The 3-mile long Clam Bayou Trail is being built in two portions, one beginning next fall.

The first, a 1.4-mile portion, begins where the Pinellas Trail meets 43rd Street S. A wide sidewalk takes cyclists a few blocks over to the Childs Park Recreation Center.

The second portion will continue from the recreation center alongside a city-owned drainage canal to Thurgood Marshall Middle School, then through Twin Brooks golf course and down to 37th Street and 34th Avenue S.

From there, the 3-mile southern spur will pick up already completed portions of the trail to Maximo Park and the county's southern tip at the Sunshine Skyway bridge.

"I think the Clam Bayou Trail could be the most beautiful trail we have in the city," said Mayor Rick Baker.

City officials lauded the $2 million recreational path not only as a bike trail, but as a bridge to connect Childs Park with the rest of the city.

"The trail is a way of bringing people all the way from the north part of the county to downtown St. Pete, and passing Childs Park as they get to Clam Bayou," said Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis III, who oversees economic development in Midtown.

Along with the trail expansion, officials are also working on enhancing the lake at Childs Park, an overlooked and somewhat polluted body of water a block away from the recreation center. The city purchased two lots adjacent to the lake this year.

City Council member Wengay Newton said he envisions the lake modeled after Crescent Lake. Right now, residents cannot access the water and complain about garbage dumping, he said.

Along its 75-mile-long loop around the county, the trail is used by about 90,000 people every month, said Brian Smith, executive director of the county's Metropolitan Planning Organization. Two-thirds of those are using the trail for transportation to work and school, not just recreation, Smith said.

Luis Perez can be reached at (727) 892-2271 or lperez@sptimes.com.