FAIRPARK—An $11 million upgrade to the Jordan River Trail got underway this week, with Salt Lake City closing a segment of the river parkway near Backman Elementary to facilitate construction of a nature playground and outdoor classroom space.

The closure is expected to continue through the summer—with a detour route marked for parkway users—and will ultimately see the Jordan River Trail permanently rerouted along a new quarter-mile segment through the Jordan Meadows neighborhood on the west side of the river.

Tyler Murdock, deputy director of the city's Public Lands department, said the work is part of the Emerald Ribbon Action Plan, which directs how funds from a 2022 voter-approved bond are to be spent along the river corridor. The action plan calls for the construction of new trailheads and public amenities, as well as improvements to lighting, sight lines, native vegetation, riverbank stabilization and trash collection.

"We are very fortunate to have this unique amenity in Salt Lake City," Murdock said. "We believe that it is the cultural and ecological heart of Salt Lake City's west side and we continually work to improve that."

On Tuesday, the Salt Lake City Police Department announced it would be taking advantage of the closure to conduct a targeted law enforcement operation along the river. While crime has long been a concern around the Jordan River Trail—which passes through several distressed and neglected industrial areas—Deputy Police Chief Andrew Wright said conditions had recently become as bad as he had ever seen, and he described the area between Cottonwood Park and 700 North as a "hotbed of criminal activity."

"The current layout of this stretch of trail gives criminals a place to hide, to sell drugs, to commit assaults and victimize our community," Wright said. "This temporary closure gives us a chance to fix a broken system."

A similar closure and crime reduction effort was conducted last year on the river segment just south of the current closure. And while last year's closure included maintenance to the vegetation and landscaping along the river, it did not fundamentally alter the built environment of the parkway as the new realignment seeks to do by improving access points and the visibility of the trail itself.

Wright characterized the previous closure as a success, but he acknowledged that criminal activity had been pushed downriver to the area around Backman Elementary.

"We will be more aggressive at following it once it moves from this area," Wright said. "We’re going to be on top of it."

He said the department had initiated components of the mayor's new public safety plan, particularly in the form of increased patrols along the river, and that officers would be targeting drug use, drug sales, and the criminals who seek to exploit those experiencing homelessness.

"These challenging issues are not going to be solved overnight. This is going to be a process, but a process we must dedicate ourselves to," Wright said. "We will not allow crime to define the Jordan River Trail or the communities that neighbor it."

Murdock said the existing trail alignment is likely to be downgraded to an unpaved walking path and potentially limited to educational programming. Traditional trail users will be shifted to the west side of the river at 500 North and will cross back to the east side along a new bridge that was installed at Backman Elementary in 2022. The Utah Department of Transportation is also scheduled to reconstruct the 600/700 North bridge over the Jordan River this year, and the Public Lands department is preparing to install new in-ground trash receptacles along the river to better manage the litter that accumulates along the parkway.

(Disclosure: The author of this report participated on a Community Advisory Group for the Emerald Ribbon Plan, in which residents provided input and feedback on the city's plans for investment along the Jordan River Parkway.)