Lake Hefner trail reopens

By Melissa Maynarich, NEWS 9

A Lake Hefner bike trail reopened Friday helping some metro residents with their commute.

The trail along the Lake Hefner dam was closed while crews resurfaced the path.

Sandra Booker uses the path to get to work. She begins on the west side of Lake Hefner in the morning, comes around to the east side of the lake and heads toward NW 50 and May Avenue. She works in a bike shop.

"I've ridden here at Lake Hefner for several years and it just gets better every year," Booker said.

The improvements to the dam trail cost about $2 million, said Hal McKnight with the trail advisory committee.

"They re-did the entire surface of the dam," McKnight said. "They put in a whole new guardrail which is a cable system. They put rip rap on the water edge to protect it on the water side, and did a replanting and re-sodding of grass on the down side.

The Lake Hefner Trails were among the first to be paved in the city's Trails Project Master plan.

"This is the most highly used trail that we have in Oklahoma City," McKnight said. "Over 15,000 people a week use and enjoy this trail."

The master plan calls for more than 200 miles of inner city walking, biking and running trails. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2020.

Cycling enthusiasts lined up to be the first to ride on the new pavement, known as the hottest recreation spot in the City.