When Mercer Island schools open next week, walking to school will be a little easier for students thanks to three trail improvement projects the city completed this summer.

The newly refurbished trails are located in neighborhoods around Northwood, West Mercer and Island Park elementaries, as well as the high school, and will give students a safer, more comfortable shortcut to school, according to the city of Mercer Island’s weekly newsletter.

“We chose trails that were in disrepair or needed attention, and that connect busy places and schools,” said Assistant City Engineer Anne Tonella-Howe. “We refreshed them, built them to proper width, replaced stairs where needed and added drainage so it’s not a mud hole in rainy weather. They’ll improve the walk to school for kids, encourage exercise, and help better connect the whole Mercer Island community.”

The trail spruce-ups were a joint effort by Public Works and Parks and Recreation staff, who collaborated on design and then used funding from Public Works and field crews from Parks to get the job done.

“We have a terrifically talented trail specialist in Andy Prince, who led much of this work. He has a great ability to fix and redesign trails so they’re better for users, and increase their sustainability so they last longer and cost less to maintain down the road,” said Alaine Sommargren, the natural resources manager for the Parks and Recreation Department.

Prince has worked as the city’s trails and urban forestry specialist for over four years and has designed and constructed trails all over the Island.

The Parks Department had been struggling to keep up with rising costs in open space management recently. Labor and materials for the three projects cost $10,000.

“If we’d tried to contract this work out, we couldn’t have afforded it. By using in-house staff, we can build to the same quality for significantly reduced cost,” Tonella-Howe said.