trails

The City of Gladstone is including new bicycle lanes and sidewalks on several upcoming road projects, according to an article in the Sun Tribune.

This week Kansas City will cut the ribbon on a new segment of Riverfront Heritage Trail and finally join two halves separated by railroad tracks.  The ASB Underpass project has build a new trail under the tracks to join Berkley Riverfront Park and the Riverfront West area.  Full details at KCBike.Info.

The Springfield News Leader had an editorial today on the controversy around the recent decision to pave a three mile section of the Frisco Highline Trail between Springfield and Willard.

Kansas City's Riverfront Heritage Trail saw a key groundbreaking this week--but is still lacking a number of key pieces to make the complete connection envisioned between downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and downtown Kansas City, Kansas.

Pitch Weekly did an extensive summary of the progress and what remains to be done to complete the trail:
There's a new bridge in the works, he says, that will allow cyclists to safely descend from the aptly named Overlook Park at Fourth and Beardsley streets. The Forester Viaduct -- a bridge complete with a bike lane -- will hop over another set of railroad tracks and land in the West Bottoms. Don't bank on cruising it anytime soon, though. It'll be two years before that's built out, Trotter says.

Then there's the disconnect between the Woodswether Bridge -- the artsy, wrought-iron treasure that spans the Kansas River under Interstate 70 -- and Kaw Point Park. There's a hypothetical ramp to fit those pieces together, but, at this point, Trotter says, the plans still need to be approved by the Army Corps of Engineers.

So what's Trotter's predicted date for the completion of the Riverfront Heritage Trail? Maybe 2011. A good seven years behind schedule.

According to a Columbia Missourian article, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources is planning to start work on the eastern extension of the Katy Trail April 2010. The work should be completed by Fall 2010.

The extension will add 11 miles to the eastern end of the Katy Trail, from St. Charles to Machens. Machens is near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

The extension has been held up for years because two areas of the original MKT railroad bed along the Missouri River were washed out. Working with local landowners and other agencies involved in the area created some headaches. Now that those are solved, it is more a question of finding the funding the complete the 11 miles of trail--about $655,000.

More details about the project are on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch web site.

MoDOT recently announced the final public meeting on the Katy Trail-Jefferson City bike/ped connection--a project that has been over a decade in the works:

According to the KTVO3 web site: