Moab secures state grant to replace closed Pack Creek Trail bridge

For walkers and cyclists trying to move between west-side neighborhoods, downtown Moab, schools, parks and the Pack Creek Trail system without a car, the Pack Creek crossing was one of the city’s most useful shortcuts. Its closure has pushed people onto Kane Creek Boulevard and Main Street, and the bridge that once carried that connection has sat out of service since flash flooding in August 2021 damaged it.

Moab secured a $135,240 Utah Recreation Restoration Infrastructure grant on June 8 to help replace the Pack Creek Trail pedestrian bridge behind St. Francis Episcopal Church. The city plans to reuse a bridge that originally stood at the Scott and Norma Matheson Wetlands Preserve, turning an existing structure into a new link for everyday travel and recreation in southwest Moab.

Assistant city engineer Didar Charles said the flood damage gave the city a chance to look at the whole crossing, not just patch the old structure. Charles said the bridge handrails no longer met current safety standards, and the bridge and its approaches did not comply with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. The city concluded that replacement would be safer and more resilient than another repair job.

The damaged crossing also sits inside a broader story about fire and water in the Pack Creek watershed. Watershed restoration records say the 2021 Pack Creek Fire burned over 9,000 acres, and city officials tied higher flows and more debris to the fire’s role in worsening the 2021 flood damage. In December 2021, Moab City Council agreed to fund replacement of the closed bridge after public outcry and in support of non-motorized travel.

City staff later kept working the problem. In August 2024, officials were evaluating the Matheson Wetlands Preserve bridge as a replacement option, with The Nature Conservancy offering it at no cost if Moab removed the structure and the piles. The state grant now gives the project momentum, even though Utah’s program only funds part of the likely cost.

That momentum matters in a watershed still under pressure. Moab watershed restoration reports say Pack and Mill creeks have faced debris flows, downcutting, invasive species, fire hazards and floodplain instability since 2021, while Mill Creek also supplies domestic and irrigation water to Moab and Spanish Valley. With stormwater and flood mitigation on Pack Creek and Mill Creek already listed among Moab’s 2025-2026 capital priorities, restoring the bridge would reconnect more than a trail segment. It would bring back the calmer, car-free route that once linked daily life in west Moab to the rest of town.