Heart of America Bridge Bike/Ped Path Grand Opening - Photos

Last Friday, MoDOT officially opened the new bicycle/pedestrian path connecting Kansas City, Missouri with North Kansas City.

The new separated path has been added to the Heart of America bridge, which crosses the Missouri River, connecting downtown KCMO to downtown North Kansas City.

The path was created by added a barrier separation in an area that was formerly a shoulder, plus a good deal of other work to make a seamless connection to the path on each end.

Flickr photos sets of the Grand Opening are available from MoBikeFed and from MoDOT District 4.

Accessing the Bridge

For those who are planning to use the path as part of their bicycle or pedestrian routes:

North access is at 10th and Burlington in the City of North Kansas City (Map/directions). Swift Avenue is a good route between the bridge and points north.

South access is at 3rd and Cherry in KCMO (map/directions). Grand Boulevard provides the most direct access to/from 3rd Street and the River Market, City Market, Downtown Loop, Berkley Riverfront Park, Riverfront Heritage Trail, etc. Charlotte Street provides convenient access to the eastern part of downtown and the Charlotte/Holmes route (on the BikeKC plan) to UMKC and the Plaza.

(Charlotte Street has a short one-way section near the south end of the Heart of America Bridge, making access from the bridge to downtown via this route unnecessarily complicated for bicyclists--KCMO is working to turn that segment into a two-way street.)