City Council authorizes final design agreement Tuesday for planned 1.25-mile Folsom-Placerville Rail Trail segment along East Bidwell Street
The long-anticipated Folsom-Placerville Rail Trail project moved another step closer to construction Tuesday night as the Folsom City Council approved a new engineering and design contract during its consent calendar.
The council unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a $346,986 consultant services agreement with R.E.Y. Engineers Inc. for the next phase of the Folsom-Placerville Rail Trail project, along with an additional appropriation of $176,986 from the city’s Transportation Demand Act fund to support the work and related staff costs.
The project will create approximately 1.25 miles of Class I bicycle and pedestrian trail extending from the Humbug-Willow Creek Trail near Creekside Drive and Oak Avenue Parkway eastward to Iron Point Road. Much of the planned trail would run parallel to East Bidwell Street within the Sacramento-Placerville Transportation Corridor Joint Powers Authority right-of-way.
Tuesday’s approval marks another milestone in a project that has been in development for more than a decade and has steadily progressed through environmental review, grant funding and preliminary design phases.
According to the staff report prepared by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, the city first sought grant funding for the trail in 2015, when staff submitted an application seeking more than $1 million through the Regional Active Transportation Funding Program. Later that year, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments approved the full funding request through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant program.
In 2017, the City Council approved an earlier consultant agreement with Kimley-Horn & Associates to complete environmental analysis and 30% preliminary engineering design work for the trail. The city paid approximately $383,283 for that initial phase.
As the project advanced, the city continued pursuing additional outside funding to fully support final design and construction. In 2023, SACOG awarded the city another $1.7 million in Active Transportation Program funding for the final design and construction phases.
The total funding secured for the project to date now exceeds $3.18 million through a combination of federal grants, state Active Transportation Program dollars and local matching funds.
City staff noted in the report that environmental clearance and preliminary design efforts have now been completed in coordination with Caltrans and SACOG. The project’s National Environmental Policy Act categorical exclusion was accepted by Caltrans earlier this year, while the city previously approved the project’s California Environmental Quality Act mitigated negative declaration in February 2024.
The newly approved agreement with R.E.Y. Engineers will focus on final design and engineering work for the trail.
According to the report, the city received two proposals after issuing a request for proposals in February. A review panel made up of staff from the Public Works and Parks & Recreation departments evaluated the firms based on qualifications, project understanding, relevant experience and technical approach. R.E.Y. Engineers received the highest average score at 85.6, compared to 69.3 for Kimley-Horn and Associates.
Staff wrote that R.E.Y. Engineers demonstrated “a superior understanding of the project constraints and remaining design challenges,” while also presenting a design team with greater depth and experience.
Although Kimley-Horn completed the earlier preliminary engineering work, the report stated there was “no apparent continuity” between the original design team and the proposed staffing plan submitted this year, reducing any anticipated efficiency advantages from continuing with the previous consultant.
The city estimates total construction costs for the trail segment at approximately $2.95 million, including contingency funding, construction management and staff time. Construction contracts and final construction approvals will return to the City Council at a later date once the final design phase is completed.
The project is part of the city’s broader effort to expand bicycle and pedestrian connectivity throughout Folsom while improving access to regional trail systems and active transportation corridors.
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