Kansas City gets a riverfront--key piece of Riverfront Heritage Trail opens

ASB Underpass Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Today Kansas City got a riverfront.

Thanks to project more than 11 years in the making, Kansas Citians can now walk or bicycle from downtown or the the River Market area to the city's riverfront.

The ASB Underpass fills in a key 50-foot gap in the Riverfront Heritage Trail and connects the segment of the trail in the area of the Town of Kansas Bridge with Berkeley Riverfront Park.

At the ribbon-cutting today it was great to see so many of Kansas City's leaders out to celebrate a trail opening.  The Port Authority had a huge ice sculpture made with the logo of KCMO and a graphic of a bicycle.  

Mayor Funkhauser reiterated the city's goal of becoming a Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community.

Linda Clark of MoDOT--which contributed a significant amount of funding to the project--said they are becoming the "Department of Multi-Modal Transportation."  

The KC Star wrote:

The opening of the $3 million project is a key victory for pedestrians, bicyclists and all other users of the trail. Finally, people headed west from Richard L. Berkley Riverfront Park will be able to continue on the pathway to the River Market area. And vice versa. . . .

Kansas City’s system of trails still requires major improvements, including construction of hundreds of miles of bike paths. But completion of the ASB trail underpass does provide a crucial connection for an important path in the city.

The project was spearheaded by the Port Authority of Kansas City and had major funding from the nearby Ameristar Casino and from MoDOT's federal transportation funds (Transportation Enhancements and Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality funds).

One of the main goals of MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri is to create a world class bicycle and pedestrian network in Missouri.  That includes fixing key gaps in the system as this project did.  Executive Director Brent Hugh served on both the Transportation Enhancements and Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality committees that evaluated and ranked projects and awarded funds to this project--precisely because it is a key connection in the region's bicycle and pedestrian system.

More photos of the ribbon cutting, the ASB underpass, the trail, and the riverfront area here.