I rode out to Belle Isle yesterday to see how the new bike skills park was coming. Nathan Burrell and his trail crew were out there, as was Ben Blitch, the independent bike park designer who works on projects like this all over the country. Blitch go into town on Sunday for what Burrell said would be 12-straight days of moving dirt, pushing rocks and general bike park crafting. When I was there, they had two skid steers, a backhoe loader and an excavator all going at the same time (I only know the names of those machines because my two-year-old son was screaming them out as we watched).

Burrell said the goal is to be done by Memorial Day, and considering the pace they’re moving at, it looks like they might just pull it off. The below pics are taken by RichmondOutside.com contributor Dave Kern.