CV Link, a more than $100 million pathway spanning roughly 40 miles through the Coachella Valley, is approaching completion with ribbon cutting ceremonies this week marking the end of a decade-long project.
The pathway (see the complete map here) is designed for cyclists, pedestrians, joggers and low-speed electric vehicles. It’s on track to be finished by the end of this year, according to officials from the Coachella Valley Association of Governments (CVAG), which is leading the project.
It’s a project that’s been in the works for nearly 20 years. CV Link’s own timeline marks 2007 as the year when community groups first started advocating for a similar bikeway. But one Palm Springs resident has been envisioning the bike path for much longer.
Jim Rothblatt, a member of the non-profit advocacy group Friends of CV Link, had the seedling of an idea for such a bike path more than half a century ago when he ran for Palm Springs City Council in 1974.
Accompanying a Desert Sun photo of the young Rothblatt, with long hair and a striking beard, the newspaper laid out one of his plans.
“[Rothblatt] wants the city to preserve lots of open space,” the article from 1974 reads. “[He] would like to see a bike trail all the way from Palm Springs to Indio.”
He said the idea just made perfect sense, even back in the 70s. Taking a bird’s eye view of any map of the Coachella Valley, and the wash cuts right through all the cities without having to get onto busy thoroughfares or navigate side streets. Running parallel to Highway 111, it’s almost like a cycling superhighway.
Now, after 51 years and a decade of advocating for the project, Rothblatt rides his bike on the path almost every day.
Jim Rothblatt, pictured at left in the back, ran on the idea of a bike path that spans the Coachella Valley along the storm water channel. (Photo courtesy Jim Rothblatt)
“My vision and my dream from way back in the 70s, it was sort of a lark, I never expected it to happen,” he said.
Though it was a long time coming, the link will now be in place for generations to come.
“It’s a legacy project that’s going to be around for a long time, and it serves the whole community,” said Rothblatt.
An initial study on what would become CV Link was completed in 2009, and CVAG officials finished the project’s master plan in 2015. Construction on CV Link began in 2017, with its first 2.3-mile segment running from Vista Chino in Palm Springs to Ramon Road in Cathedral City opening a year later.
The project is funded through state and federal sources as well as grants from different sources including the Desert Healthcare District Foundation and South Coast Air Quality Management District.
For Erica Felci, CVAG’s deputy executive director, the wide range of sources reflects the wide-ranging benefits of the CV Link. If more people choose to bike or walk thanks to the bike path, they’ll see health benefits and the valley benefits from fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Throughout the Coachella Valley, crews have been working for years to build out the infrastructure needed to support the CV Link path.
The final cost of the project came out to about $120 million. An eye-popping sum, but it could have been a lot more expensive. Felci said CVAG locked in the contracts for several elements of the pathway, like the seeded colorful glass embedded in the road and the lighting, ahead of major price increases post-pandemic.
However, two local cities saw more drawbacks than benefits of the link. Indian Wells and Rancho Mirage both pulled out of the project, so the link stops right at their city borders and cyclists and walkers have to transition onto surface streets.
Despite the missing links, the bike path is still an achievement of civic engineering.
“It is an undertaking to put an infrastructure project this long, more than 40 miles, into an already developed community.”
CVAG had to work with the seven participating city governments, state and regional entities, and even the Coachella Valley Water district.
CVAG’s work on the project doesn’t end once the ribbons are cut and the giant scissors are sheathed. Felci said there is still a “punch list” of finishing touches like refining signage and lighting. CVAG has locked in a two-year, $600,000 contract with Desert Recreation District for upkeep of the pathway.
CVAG is also working to complete construction on the Ramon Road Undercrossing to create a safe passageway for cyclists and pedestrians looking to avoid the dangerous intersection. The path has been graded, but they’re still working on installing rebar and cement. CVAG is targeting a December completion.
An underpass allowing users of the CV Link to go under Ramon Road, seen here under construction recently, should be finished by the end of the year. (Photo: Friends of CV Link)
The pathway also isn’t yet integrated with Google Maps, so it won’t guide cyclists to the nearest CV Link entrance, taking them instead along surface streets like Country Club Drive or Highway 111.
Those busy roads have little-to-know protection for cyclists and are a huge impediment to would-be cyclists.
Bike infrastructure varies widely from city to city in the Coachella Valley. The CV Link represents a Class I bike path, it’s completely separate from cars and wide enough to accommodate bike traffic both ways. Other classifications run from a bike lane separated from car traffic using bollards to a painted line.
For non-cyclists, the completion of the CV Link doesn’t mean much if they don’t feel comfortable using surface streets to bike to the link.
CVAG is fully aware of this reality, and Felci said they’re working to connect communities to the CV Link with better bike lanes.
“We call them community connectors, and our master plan identified a number of them and we’re actively working with our cities to plan, design, and find funding to address just that very concern: How do you get to the link?”
One community connector in development would go through La Quinta, Indio, and Coachella and add two new entrances to the CV Link. An extension in Desert Hot Springs could also be on the horizon, and another is being considered for the Salton Sea.
Even though community connectors are slowly being built up, the link is already bringing people out.
“My vision and my dream from way back in the 70s, it was sort of a lark, I never expected it to happen.”
— Jim Rothblatt, Friends of CV Link
“It serves the whole community,” Rothblatt said. He’s seen babies, families, seniors, and people of all abilities. “[They] can all get out in the fresh air and get all the health benefits…that go with such a project.”
Since it isn’t officially open, CVAG doesn’t have any usage numbers yet, but Felci said anecdotally she’s seen an uptick in families riding bicycles on the open sections of the link in Palm Springs.
For Felci, the ribbon cuttings signify much more than just the official opening of the CV Link. She thinks the link will connect people just as much as it connects the cities.
“Every time I go out on the link, I get stopped by somebody,” she said. “I think that more unexpected moments will happen where you are passing somebody and you stop and have a conversation.”
“[The CV Link] is not just a way to get to your destination, it can be a destination in itself,” she said.