A design for a north Powell pedestrian and bike path is moving forward.

At their Aug. 1 meeting, Park County Commissioners unanimously approved sole bidder Engineering Associates to design the North Powell Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities project. The approval for the chair to sign following attorney review allowed the process to continue to the next phase, as WYDOT can now put together a cost proposal.

“We'll have to work out agreement that WYDOT will have a lot of back and forth on,” said County Project Manager Ben McDonald.

The county actually approved a bid Engineering Associates had initially submitted weeks before. However, since they were the sole bidder, McDonald said the state asked the county to go back out and to try and see if any other bidders would be interested before settling on the local design firm.

“We did have some calls, but nobody wanted to bite,” he said.

The county has worked on a planned north Powell path for years. It is proposed to run for a long stretch near Lane 8 out to Road 10, going down both that road as well as Road 9 1/2, and connecting to a path that runs by places such as Homesteader Park and the Northwest College campus. The proposal also includes a potential addition to the east of the existing pathway that would go south on Panther Boulevard from Lane 8 to the high school.

Brian Edwards said in a later interview that the initial TAP funds will go to the design and after that is finalized, the county will again go out for funding to actually construct the pathway.