Work Underway To Pave Trail At Haig Mill Lake Park

Wednesday, December 31st, 2025

The trail surrounding Haig Mill Lake Park will soon offer the best of both worlds for outdoor enthusiasts. Work is underway to pave a trail around the lake with specifications similar to the popular Mill Line Trail, but long sections of the existing nature trail are being preserved as well. The paved trail will be ten feet wide and perfect for road bicycling enthusiasts and also walkers and joggers, while the nature trail sections will still offer hikers and trail runners a beautiful way to enjoy the lake. The park and existing trail will remain open while work proceeds, with some sections of the trail closed while under construction.

Caption: A crewmember from the Dalton Public Works Department works to clear a path for the paving project in Haig Mill Lake Park

"We were trying to develop a win-win for the folks that wanted to see the paved surface, but there were also some folks that really enjoyed the natural surface," said City Administrator Andrew Parker. "The alignment of the paved trail will in some cases follow the current alignment of the natural trail, but in some sections, it's going to be constructed off-line from the natural trail. So, for those users that want to continue to have the enjoyment of a more challenging run, for example, or just prefer the natural surface, there will still be significant portions that will complement the new paved trail and remain natural. In many cases, those natural sections will get closer down to the lake, whereas the paved surface will be a little bit further away."

CLICK HERE to view a map showing where the new paved trail will be built and where existing trails will be left in their natural state

Parker gives credit for the idea to Councilmember Steve Farrow, who championed the project during his first campaign for the City Council. As an avid road cyclist, Farrow saw an opportunity for the park. 

"I had done some cycling, and I didn't like to cycle out on the street for safety reasons. So I found myself always having to travel either up to Chickamauga State Park or to the river trail in Chattanooga," Farrow said. "So I wanted to try to see if we could make something available here locally for cyclists, and also to women wanting a place to take their baby carriages out and things like that. Nature trails don't really allow you to do that because if you have anything other than a mountain bike, you really need more of an improved trail." 

The Dalton Public Works Department is currently working to clear a path for the new paved trail in the northwest corner of the park, clearing brush to widen the existing pathway. The new paved path will be ten feet wide, just like the Mill Line Trail, which requires more space than the existing trail has. Sections under construction are closed, and signs have been posted to warn trail users to turn back. 

"We just ask that people be mindful of the signage. We still have a lot of people using the trail and not paying attention to the signs." said Chad Townsend, Dalton's Public Works Director. "It is a construction zone and people do need to be mindful. The intent is to minimize the impact so people can still utilize the trail while the work's going on."

"I think with all of the excitement and usage of the Mill Line, there was a desire to make the Hag Mill Lake Park more pedestrian-friendly by improving certain portions of the trail with a paved surface. That way users of the Mill Line can continue on into Haig Mill Lake Park and continue to cycle or, you know, push a stroller, things like that," Parker said. "Previously, the surface, the natural surface was not as easily traversable for everyday road bikes and regular bicycles as well as stroller passage and things like that."

Caption: A map shows the route for the new paved trail in blue and the preserved sections of the existing nature trail in green (click here to see a larger version)

Because of the two dams that create the water reservoir in the park and the topography of the park, it will not be possible to create a fully paved loop around the lake. Instead, there are plans to replace the gravel surface on the dams with a more compacted aggregate stone surface that is more friendly to bicycles or wheelchairs. In the southwest corner of the trail, which is where the existing trail has its most dramatic bends and elevation changes, it will not be possible to pave a path. Instead the paved trail will take users onto the park's entry road which they can take into the parking lot and rejoin the trail. 

All of the work on the project from clearing the path to paving the trail is being performed by Dalton's Public Works Department. The project is a new challenge for the department's staff. 

"It's a nice change of pace. We go from doing the clearing, grubbing, grading, and paving aspects of it all," Public Works Director Chad Townsend said. "It gets us out of downtown and out here into the woods, so I think everybody's within Public Works is enjoying it." 

The project was funded from the City's 2025 Capital Improvements Project budget. Work on the project is expected to take much of the winter. Once it is complete, however, there will be approximately three more miles of paved trail for biking, running, and other leisure uses in Dalton's parks. 

"In conjunction with the mile and a half of the Mill Line Trail that was opened in 2024, we're going to be close to five miles of paved trails, and that's before the Mill Line extension to downtown which is currently in the design phase which will bring a little more than two miles," Parker said. "We're really excited. It's a win-win to be able to do it with our Public Works Department personnel, and also to be able to deliver it sort of quickly and quicker than the Mill Line extension will occur."