What's Left on the Duarte Rec Trail After the Paving Crews Leave

Crews finished paving the Donald and Bernice Watson Recreation Trail on September 16. If you walk the 1.6 miles between Buena Vista Street and Royal Oaks Park now, the trail looks close to done. The new surface is smooth, the crosswalks at Mt. Olive Drive and Royal Oaks North have been rebuilt, and striping and signage went in at the main intersections in late September. Two pieces of the project are still underway this month. One is the lighting, which the City Council hadn't fully committed to when it approved the contract in April. The other is a row of native oaks the City is planting for the second time.

According to the City of Duarte's project page, the City's October 5 update has the contractor installing electrical conduit and footings for new lights, improving irrigation along the length of the trail, and doing landscaping. The target for finishing everything is still winter 2026.

The visible work came first, on a tight schedule

Duarte-based FS Contractors started the week of June 22. In just under three months the crew handled almost everything a trail user would notice from one week to the next.

The crosswalk phasing shows how much the trail is tied into the streets around it. The City's notes say the Mount Olive Drive crossing was rebuilt in stages because Mount Olive is the only way into some of the neighborhoods to the north. For the Royal Oaks North crossing, traffic was sent to the west end of the street from Thursday until Monday morning while the concrete cured.

The most noticeable new feature also arrived during this stretch. Kinetic wind sculptures by Lyman Whitaker now stand near the seating areas at the east and west ends of the trail. Whitaker has been making wind sculptures since 1985, and the City's page lists his collectors as including Warner Brothers, Apple TV+, the Dallas Arboretum and the City of Boston. Duarte has now joined that list. The City has said more landscaping is planned around the sculptures, so they're unlikely to look finished until the planting is done.

The lights were the open question in April

Lighting is the main job left this fall, and it was the least settled piece of the plan when the project was approved. On April 14 the council awarded FS Contractors a $1,697,000 contract. Citizen Portal put the total at $1,816,800 once a 7% contingency was added. As Citizen Portal reported, the council also told staff to come back with cost estimates for trail lighting and options for phasing it in.

The money explains some of the caution. HeySoCal reported that, according to a city staff report, the project is funded mainly by a federal grant administered by Caltrans, with local Measure M money covering the required match. The City's own share is about $200,000. The City's project page says the federal money is Community Project Funding awarded in 2023 and credits former Congressmember Grace Napolitano with helping secure it. When most of the cost comes from outside grants and the City's share is a fixed amount, any new item has to fit inside a budget that's hard to stretch. Phasing the lights in was one way to make that work.

The lighting is moving forward now. Conduit was being laid along the trail in August, and the October update puts footings for the light fixtures in this month's schedule. The plan calls this "enhanced security lighting." The City hasn't posted a date for when the lights will switch on, so for now the best guide is the winter completion target.

The oaks are getting a second start

Landscaping is the other unfinished job, and it has a longer history than the lighting. About 20 years ago, the City of Bradbury donated and planted 40 Englemann oaks along the north side of the trail between East Royal Oaks North and Mount Olive Drive. Englemann oaks are native to the San Gabriel Valley foothills. They're evergreen and can reach 30 feet. Over the last few years several of them have died.

People have suggested the trees weren't watered or maintained properly. The City says they received regular maintenance. It hired a professional arborist to assess the trees, and the City's project page reports the finding this way.

"That assessment found that the trees were stressed because they were planted incorrectly."

Of the original 40 trees, 25 will be removed and replaced, and an arborist will monitor the planting and care. In practice this means the north side of that stretch will look younger for a while than it has in years. The 15 trees that stay are about two decades old, and the 25 new ones will be starting over beside them. Paving was done in about three months. The new oaks will take years to fill in. The City's irrigation work is part of setting them up, and the project page names drought-tolerant landscaping and irrigation improvements as part of the plan.

A 1977 corridor, finished by the people who live along it

The trail opened in 1977 along the old Pacific Electric Railway route. The City describes it as a community asset that has served residents since that year, and it says the 2026 work is designed to improve safety and accessibility while preserving the trail's role as a recreational corridor.

The names on the trail point back to its beginning. The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported at the February 2020 renaming that Donald Watson was elected to the Duarte City Council in 1968 as the first Black councilmember in Duarte and the San Gabriel Valley. In 1971 he became Duarte's first Black mayor, and he led the effort to create the trail. The same article reported that Bernice Bozeman-Watson supported his work for the city and co-wrote On the Duarte, a history of the town, and that Donald insisted her name be on the trail as well.

The current work is also mostly local. The contractor, FS Contractors, and the landscape architect, Armstrong & Walker, are both based in Duarte. The engineer is Elie Farah, Inc. of Corona, and the lighting consultant is South Coast Lighting of San Clemente.

Using the trail between now and winter

The trail is open while the work continues. The City has warned that construction will interrupt accessible paths at times and that FS Contractors will set up alternate routes where it can. Expect signs, orange fencing and cones wherever the surface is uneven or a temporary condition is in place. During the paving in September, people using the trail were sent onto unpaved sections at times. With footings and irrigation now going in along the edges, it makes sense to check the project page before a long walk or ride.

At the trail's Royal Oaks end, Royal Oaks Park at 2627 Royal Oaks Drive is a 5.5-acre park with restrooms, a playground, barbecue and picnic areas, lighted basketball and tennis courts, grass volleyball and a recreation building. If you'd rather end a weekend loop with lunch, Gene's Grinders is another Duarte option. The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported that the sandwich shop reopened on April 18 at 1012 E. Huntington Drive in Mountain Vista Plaza, next to Crumbl Cookies, after 49 years in Monrovia.

The City posts dated updates on the project page. That's where the date for the lights coming on is most likely to show up first.

At Art Del Rey Realty, we've followed projects like this one across the San Gabriel Valley for decades, and we know how much a finished trail adds to the streets along Royal Oaks Drive. If you live near the trail and want to talk about what the work means for your home, or you're simply curious how it's coming along, Pamela is happy to talk it through. Let's Connect.