Recently completed by the town, a new path in Waveny, running from the western side of Waveny House to the Lapham Road entrance, is earning high praise from park users.
The eight-foot wide path closes a long-planned loop in the park, officials say, allowing visitors to enjoy approximately 1.7 miles of uninterrupted pathway and offering an even more attractive solution to pedestrians who insist on walking in the road.
The new path is lined with trees and overlooks an open field.
“It used to be like a cow path,” Recreation Director Steve Benko told NewCanaanite.com. “Everybody had to walk up the same hill, and they’d trip over rocks and roots. Now, you can conceivably do a loop of the whole park without leaving the path.”
Additional drainage is expected to take place soon, and the path is currently up and running under a design from the Waveny Park Conservancy.
“I think it’s great,” said New Canaan resident Mary Zech, “I love walking my dogs in Waveny, and now we can take this route with an actual path. It’s really beautiful.”
The new footpath at Waveny is getting regular use already. Credit: Michael Dinan
A second path, which had been constructed in the summer of last year and runs along the “Pool Road” (between the main road through Waveny and Lapham Community Center), is to be updated to match the new one.
“When we put the material in, the weather was hot and dry, so it did not pack well,” Benko said. “When the first rain came, it washed away most of the stones. Public Works has a contractor who is supposed to replace that stone.”
The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday is scheduled to vote on an approximately $18,000 contract to install the “top course” for that trail.
The new path is a wonderful improvement for Waveny. Hats off to the team of people who conceived of it, developed the plan, coordinated the approvals & financing, and implemented it. Anyone who has been involved in a civic project in New Canaan (or anywhere) has an idea of the amount of effort and patience is involved. It is a credit to our community that we have so many good people willing to volunteer their time and energy to projects like this one.
Beautiful (and safer).