Annie and Mary Trail Paved to West End Road, Expanding Arcata's Car-Free Network

Granite Construction crews have laid fresh pavement on the Annie & Mary Trail all the way to West End Road, pushing Arcata's most ambitious active-transportation project past one of its most visible milestones yet. The new stretch extends a smooth, off-street surface beyond earlier work that had stopped near student housing, filling in a critical gap in north Arcata's non-motorized network.

The Annie & Mary Trail Connectivity Project is designed to build approximately 3.5 miles of Class I shared-use path running from the Arcata Skate Park at Sunset Avenue north to the Mad River area at Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Park 1. For students living in campus housing such as the Hinarr Hu Moulik dorms, the paved corridor now provides a direct walking and rolling route to Cal Poly Humboldt without touching a road shoulder.

The project is a collaboration among the City of Arcata, the Great Redwood Trail Agency, Cal Poly Humboldt, and Granite Construction, with contributions from local tribal and housing authorities along the corridor. Formal design and environmental review work began in 2022, and construction phases launched in 2025, with crews completing incremental sections through late last year and into 2026.

Where the terrain demands it, the project includes bridges and boardwalks rather than simple pavement, and the full multi-mile corridor is scheduled for completion by mid-to-late 2026, subject to weather, funding, and supply timelines. The West End Road milestone signals the project is tracking on an active construction schedule.

The practical payoff for Valley West extends beyond convenience. Transportation advocates backing the project argue the paved path will pull bicycle and foot traffic off dangerous road shoulders, reduce short vehicle trips, and lower demand for parking on Cal Poly Humboldt's perimeter. When complete, the trail will also link into the Great Redwood Trail, connecting Arcata's active-transportation network to a regional corridor stretching far beyond city limits.

Questions about long-term maintenance funding, wayfinding signage, and how each completed segment integrates with future phases will likely intensify as more pavement goes down. For now, the reach to West End Road marks the clearest sign yet that the Annie & Mary Trail is being built in earnest.