Ask any trail app what the Piney Creek Trail is like and you'll get some version of the same sentence: a long, flat, paved route with almost no street crossings, ideal for a quiet ride or an even quieter walk. AllTrails calls it an 18.5-mile out-and-back you can finish in under six hours. A local neighborhood guide puts the one-way distance closer to nine miles. Another trail directory rounds it to ten and notes the route runs through both Centennial and Aurora. None of those numbers agree with each other, and none of them mention the thing that actually changed this year.
At Arapahoe Road and Liverpool Street, the trail's one true bottleneck, the underpass that let you glide beneath the intersection without breaking stride, is gone. Not closed for repairs. Not detoured while a contractor finishes a punch list. Gone, permanently, by the City of Aurora's own decision, and most of what's written about this trail online still describes a route that no longer exists at that corner.
Why the City Chose to Close It for Good
The box culvert under Arapahoe and Liverpool was built in the early 2000s to move stormwater, not people. A sidewalk got added into that design somewhere along the way, and nobody at the city can say with certainty why. For years it worked well enough. Then Piney Creek started carrying more base flow than the culvert was ever meant to handle on a routine basis, and the underpass sidewalk turned into something that flooded and silted up on a regular schedule instead of an occasional one.
The city didn't rush the decision. Aurora spent several years evaluating alternatives for the crossing, and it had a nearby cautionary tale to work from. At Quebec Street and Arapahoe Road, engineers had tried building a retaining wall to keep flooding and sediment off a similar underpass trail. It reduced some of the mess but increased maintenance and, more to the point, increased the unsafe conditions it was supposed to fix. That fix was eventually abandoned and the approach sidewalks removed. Aurora used the same playbook at Arapahoe and Liverpool: no retrofit was going to make the underpass safe, so the city closed it and moved trail traffic to the surface instead.
Before shutting the underpass, Aurora finished at-grade improvements at the intersection, including widened sidewalks and new curb ramps built specifically for the trail crossing. The final piece, removing the remaining stub of sidewalk that used to lead down into the old underpass, was slated for early 2026. If you've walked or ridden through that intersection recently, you've already seen the finished version: a crosswalk, a signal cycle, and no tunnel underneath.
What the Crossing Actually Asks of You Now
This matters more at this specific point than almost anywhere else on the trail, because Arapahoe Road is a genuine arterial, not a quiet residential street. A route that used to let you cross underneath six lanes of traffic without stopping now puts you at a signal, waiting on a walk cycle, with a stroller or a dog leash or a bike you have to unclip from.
For a morning dog walk or an evening loop with kids, that's a minor adjustment: budget an extra minute or two, use the new curb ramps, and treat the crossing like any other signalized intersection. For anyone using the trail as a longer bike route, especially at dawn or dusk when visibility is lower, it's worth actually slowing down at that corner instead of assuming the old rhythm still applies. The trail's biggest selling point, that you could cover long stretches without touching a street, is no longer true at its single busiest crossing.
A Second Change Running at the Same Time
While the city was closing out the Arapahoe and Liverpool project, a separate effort started along the creek corridor itself. In March 2026, Trails Park and Recreation District flagged a vegetation removal project being contracted and managed by the Southeast Metro Stormwater Authority, targeting overgrown vegetation and debris buildup along the Piney Creek drainage near the trail. TPRD isn't running the project and doesn't control the schedule. Its role is limited to helping the community stay informed while SEMSWA does the actual work.
The two projects aren't connected, but they land in the same year, and together they mean 2026 is genuinely not a business-as-usual year for this trail. If you notice crews working near the creek bed on a stretch that used to be all overgrown willow and cottonwood, that's very likely this project rather than random landscaping.
As the safety of trail users is paramount, the city has chosen to close the underpass trail permanently.
That's the reasoning Aurora gave for the Arapahoe and Liverpool decision, and it's worth taking at face value. This wasn't a cost-cutting move or a construction delay that will eventually reverse. It's the new baseline.
The Landmarks You're Already Passing, Reconsidered
None of this changes what makes the rest of the corridor worth using. It just means the mental map needs a small update.
| Landmark | What's true about it in 2026 |
|---|---|
| Ponderosa Preserve | Marks the southeast starting point most local descriptions still use as the trailhead reference |
| Larkspur Park | Seven acres with a playground, picnic tables, and horseshoe pits, with direct trail access |
| Red-Tailed Hawk Park | Includes a wetland boardwalk and sheltered picnic tables, a natural rest stop before or after the Arapahoe crossing |
| Saddle Rock Golf Course | Piney Creek runs through the back nine here, and the trail skirts the course on its way northwest |
| Arapahoe Road and Liverpool Street | Now an at-grade signalized crossing with new curb ramps, no underpass option |
| Cherry Creek State Park | The trail's northwest endpoint, with camping and a marina, and the jumping-off point for the Cherry Creek Regional Trail |
That last connection is worth dwelling on. From Cherry Creek State Park, the Cherry Creek Regional Trail runs roughly 40 miles up toward downtown Denver. For residents who want to turn a short evening loop into a genuine long-distance ride, that's the extension point, and it's been there the whole time regardless of what happened at Arapahoe and Liverpool.
Building a Loop Around the New Normal
If your usual route treats the Arapahoe and Liverpool crossing as a mid-point, the simplest adjustment is to think of it as a hard stop rather than a pass-through. A short loop that stays entirely on one side of that intersection, say from Larkspur Park down through Red-Tailed Hawk Park and back, avoids the new crossing altogether and keeps the walk exactly as quiet as it always was.
A longer ride toward Cherry Creek State Park still has to cross at Arapahoe and Liverpool at some point, and that's fine. Just plan for the signal instead of assuming a clear shot underneath. If you're riding with kids or anyone less comfortable stopping and starting at a six-lane intersection, this is the one spot on the whole route worth walking the bike through rather than riding it.
None of this is a reason to think less of the trail. It's still one of the more usable stretches of paved path in this part of Aurora and Centennial, connecting a golf course, two neighborhood parks, a state park, and a 40-mile regional trail without much else standing in the way. It's just no longer the uninterrupted corridor the internet keeps describing, and knowing exactly where that changed is more useful than another generic trail summary.
If you're weighing what a home near this corridor is actually worth today, or thinking about what comes next for a property close to the trail, Gerlock Homes can walk you through it with the same level of specificity. Request a free home valuation or schedule a no-pressure consultation whenever you're ready.
