This page contains a vision for extending the El Rio Trail south past its current trail head at Glades. The City of Boca Raton owns the right of way along this stretch and adjacent property owners have, in various ways, built improvements on the city owned land. One way to approach certain resistance is to incorporate things into the trail that improve the quality of life for those property owners such as landscaping and privacy fencing. Better approaches may prevail.
The top part of a southern connection goes from Glades to a Lake Worth District canal that runs west to I-95 and makes a tee at the El Rio Canal. That section is adjacent to a multifamily complex with a sidewalk running along the length of the property.
At the east-west canal. a small ped/bike bridge like the one that crosses the El Rio Canal along FAU would be needed. When the route hits NW 7th St, it could use the existing road bridge but that is dangerous according to locals. Another ped/bike bridge for the trail should be used either on the north or south side of the NW 7th Ave road bridge.
Here is a video traveling about 80% of the way from Glades to the east-west canal:
After crossing NW 7th St, the least impact route for the southern El Rio Trail continues by cutting across city owned Golden Fig Park and then south in the El Rio canal right of way. After crossing behind 3 properties, it then joins NW 6th Ct where is can run adjacent to the street with minimal impact to the properties that have built sidewalks, parking areas and docks. NW 6th Ct runs into Palmetto Dunes park which has three exits onto the northern Palmetto Park mixed use trail.
