Heads up: This road into downtown Lexington will have lane closures
Several lanes of Midland Avenue will be closed for construction of the Town Branch Commons trail.
One inbound lane and two outbound lanes on Midland will be open at all times. During the morning rush, two inbound lanes will be open. Left turns onto Midland from Winchester Road will be reduced to one turn lane.
The Town Branch Commons trail, which connects the Town Branch Trail to the Legacy Trail, will go along Midland Avenue on the Thoroughbred Park side to the Legacy Trailhead at the corner of Midland and Third Street.
The $39.5 million trail, scheduled to be completed in 2022, is paid for through local, state and federal grants.
Construction on the section from Main Street and Midland Avenue to Third Street is expected to take several months.
The Town Branch Commons trail system, with separate paths for pedestrians and cyclists, will roughly follow the path of Town Branch, Lexington’s first water source, which is located in a culvert under Vine Street. The Town Branch Commons trail starts roughly near the Central Bank Center, travels up Vine Street to the intersection of Main and Vine streets and continues down Midland Avenue to Third Street.
Construction continues on other parts of the trail on Vine Street, city officials said Friday.
Crews have unearthed several archaeological finds during the construction of the trail. While digging on a section that includes Triangle Park, archaeologists found tools, dinnerware and remains of buildings from the 1700s to the 1900s. Underneath another section of trail in front of the city’s Phoenix building on Vine Street, archaeologists found bone lice combs, an Indiana head penny from 1863, flat metal buttons used in the early 1800s and other dinnerware.
Those archaeological finds are currently being cataloged and dated.
Once completed, the downtown trail system will create a more than 20-mile contiguous trail system.
