A cement-paved section of trail linking Burcham Park with Constant Park ends just east of Burcham Park. The Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department will ask city commissioners at Tuesday's meeting for an additional 8,000 to pave the entire length of the trail along the south bank of the Kansas River between the parks.

The Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department is requesting an additional $78,650 in city funding for an ongoing project to improve a trail along the Kansas River.

Work began earlier this summer to pave a dirt trail connecting Burcham Park, at Second and Indiana streets, to Constant Park, at Sixth and Tennessee streets.

It was originally proposed that the path be two-thirds asphalt and one-third concrete. After a wet summer, the department decided asphalt wouldn’t hold up, and it is now requesting additional funds to use concrete for the entire 0.64-mile trail.

According to a memorandum sent from the Parks and Recreation Department to interim City Manager Diane Stoddard, the increase would bring the project’s total budget to $186,600 and the city’s contribution to $136,825. The other $49,775 is funded through a grant from the Topeka-based Sunflower Foundation.

“Sooner or later, we were going to come back and pour concrete on the whole thing,” said Mark Hecker, assistant director of parks and recreation. “We were looking at it, and it seems like a wasted step. We’re just fast forwarding it a little bit and going ahead with the concrete.”

The city’s portion of the funding — currently $58,175 — comes from the sales tax reserve. That fund would also be used to pay the additional $78,650.

Hecker said the department would only be “flip-flopping” funding because construction on the new Baldwin Creek Trail, which was expected to start this fall, will likely be pushed to spring 2016.

The 0.7-mile Baldwin Creek Trail, which will start on Queens Road and connect to trails at Rock Chalk Park, was pushed back in order to be rerouted, Hecker said.

With the new route, there will be fewer bridges to construct, Hecker said. Original plans called for five.

The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism will reimburse the city for $320,000 of that $400,000 project.

As with the Burcham Park river trail, the city’s portion of the project will come from the sales tax reserve fund.

Lawrence-based R.D. Johnson Excavating poured concrete earlier this summer near Burcham Park, but work on the other end of the trail has been delayed because of rain.

“It’s washed out often,” Hecker said. “We get it almost dry enough, and then it rains again. It’s been one of those weird summers where there’s no long stretch of dry.”

Construction on the Burcham Park river trail is expected to be completed by Dec. 1.

When it’s complete, the trail will connect to the Outside for a Better Inside Trail in Sandra J. Shaw Community Health Park, making it possible to walk along the Kansas River — on a paved surface — from Lawrence Memorial Hospital to City Hall.

“It’s a nice little piece of the puzzle,” Hecker said. “It’s part of the city that most people don’t venture to. Now they can take their bike or walk and take advantage of the river we have downtown but really don’t use much.”

City commissioners will consider the funding request Tuesday. The City Commission meeting starts at 5:45 p.m. at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.