The Mississippi East Bank trail is open, if not quite finished. The project, begun last spring, brought parallel walking/biking paths from the Plymouth/8th Avenue bridge North along the river’s East bank to the BNSF railroad bridge. The path cuts through the former Scherer Brothers lumber yard property, passes the Graco building, curves around the sculpture at Sheridan Memorial Park, and runs between the condos and apartments on Marshall Street and the river’s edge.
Paving, lighting, benches and most signs are in. Some of the tweaks include grinding down concrete footings, completing fence installation, standardizing the blade signs, and path striping (which is weather-dependent.) An infiltration pond at the trail’s north end will need some adjustment of drainage areas, and dimmers on some of the light poles near residential buildings may be installed.
MPRB Project Manager Deb Bartels said that one of the difficulties encountered was the way
federal funding for the project was structured. The trail design had to be submitted by July 31, 2015 to qualify for funds. At that time,
designers did not know how another part of the RiverFirst project, the reconstruction of Hall’s Island on the North end of the Scherer site, might impact the trail. Ultimately the trail project was approved, and the $960,000 contract was awarded to Sunram Construction.
Bartels said that some signage for the bridges that cross over the trail was eliminated after determining that there were unsolved safety issues about pedestrian crossing at those points. She noted “It would be great in the future if there was an easier way to get to the trail; Marshall Street is not very bike-friendly.”
Asked if there would be a ceremony to christen the trail and help people to discover it, Bartels remarked, “There were cyclists coming up behind the asphalt
paving machines; the trail is already getting used, and the river views are great!”
Photo by Mark Peterson