Missouri trail advocates have progress in the east and hope in the west toward the longtime goal of connecting Kansas City and St. Louis via the Katy Trail.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is negotiating an agreement that would allow the Katy Trail State Park to bypass flood-damaged areas in St. Charles County by using the tops of private flood levees as trail beds. That would allow the trail to extend 11 miles farther to the northeast — from St. Charles to Machens — making it easier to link up with existing St. Louis metro area trails and the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, said Sue Holst, a department spokeswoman.
“We’re very close to getting an agreement with the levee district,” Holst said.
Meanwhile, St. Louis-based AmerenUE is being asked by Gov. Matt Blunt and Attorney General Jay Nixon to allow the state to use a segment of an old Rock Island rail line the utility controls from Windsor, Mo., to Pleasant Hill. That would provide Kansas City area trails a connection to the Katy Trail.
All sides say negotiations are ongoing for the Rock Island right of way as part of the compensation to the state for damages when the utility’s Taum Sauk dam broke and flooded a state park in 2005.
The Katy Trail already extends 225 miles from St. Charles, Mo., to Clinton, Mo., and it draws several hundred thousand riders and walkers each year. It opened in 1990, on the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad bed.
But at either end of the trail, advocates want to add links so there is an unbroken trail system from Kansas City to St. Louis, one that other towns in the state could connect to.
One reason connections are moving forward in several different points along the Katy Trail is that citizens have taken the time to make their wishes heard.
