By the end of today, paving will be completed on the East Cannon River Trail (part of the Greenway Corridor). I took these photos late Thursday afternoon.
The paved trail currently ends a few hundred feet shy of the old Village School, now owned by the Northfield Hospital (and soon to house 40+ hospital operations employees). Sean Simonson, Engineering Tech Coordinator for the City of Northfield, told me that in a few weeks, that short segment will be completed and paved as well, connecting to the parking lot of the Hospital operations office building.
The bad news?
When I blogged about the trail back in mid-May, I assumed it would extend all the way to Dundas since the Babcock Park Lift Station & Interceptor Sewer Project involves Northfield taking more shit from Dundas.
Alas, I was wrong.
The trail ends at a swamp just south of the Hospital operations office building. And there are no current plans/funding to extend the trail along the river all the way to Dundas, despite the wording on the Parks and Trails Legacy Grant Program page for the East Cannon River Trail that says it’s a "3 mile multi-use trail."
It’s really about one mile. Maybe 1.5.
To get to Dundas from the end of the paved trail (again, in a week or so when it connects to the hospital operations parking lot) you’ll need to take the frontage road (Bollenbacher Drive) along Hwy 3 to Riverview Drive by Perkins, west to Cannon Road, south all the way to County 1, and then west into Dundas where you can then return to Northfield via the Mill Towns Trail.
So we’re a long way from a complete 6-mile loop trail. But it’s a considerable improvement. The East Cannon River Trail now provides trail access to the Babcock Park baseball field, the Northfield Ice Arena, and all the businesses in the area.
It’s a tad ironic, since this means this trail (which follows the route of Hwy 3) ends exactly where the sidewalks end on Hwy 3 — where Bollenbacher Drive curves back into the older frontage road. Except for the poorly designed Woodley St intersection, it was never really that hard to bike in this area before — the really problematic area is the gap between this point and Dundas. I realize the point of this was recreational, not for transportation, but doubling up where there is already a (mediocre) route and not at all where there is a complete gap, is a tad odd.
Have they at least fixed the gap in Riverside/Babcock Park as part of this? A portion of the trail — near Peggy Prowe Bridge — has been missing for months. Getting to Northfield Athletic (before its closing), I had to ride on Hwy 3 well past the end of the bike lanes. Not the end of the world, but some drivers certainly didn’t appreciate having to change lanes on the bridge.
So does anyone know the details on how it happened that this trail is now destined to be a dead-end for a long time, ie, only 1 mile of the frequently announced 3 miles which was to make a 6-mile loop between Nfld and Dundas in conjunction with the Mill Towns Trail?
Looking at pages 52-56 of the March 15 City Council packet, the trail had already secured the money to connect all the way to Honey Locust Drive. The resolution was for an application for additional money to pave it:
So we got the money to pave the trail from the Peggy Prowe Pedestrian Bridge to Honey Locust Drive but somewhere along the way, a whole mile or more was lost/cut/deleted?
I’ve edited the title of the blog post to now read:
Griff, like all public works projects, I ask where is the endowment that will cover all future maintenance costs?
Just as with the proposed Safety Center, etc, the true cost of a project is not just its construction, but that plus the present value of all future maintenance costs.
So, it looks to me like it’s not just a matter of not having enough funding to extend the route, but that it’s maintenance has not been properly accounted for — in effect, it has been borrowed from future taxpayers.
Are you aware of any set-asides for the maintenance?
David, your point is spot on. The City should (must) do a better job of planning and budgeting for the maintenance and eventual replacement of its facilities and infrastructure.
We must do this across the board, but the bike trail and other grant-supported projects highlight one of the pitfalls of grant funding. Grants provide capital for new projects, but not for on-going costs. We should be especially careful when seeking grant funding to understand the long-term cost of the project and not just the benefit of the front-loaded grant.
Betsey, I don’t understand what happened with this trail. For at least two years it’s been touted as the piece that makes for a 6-mile loop to Dundas and back with the Mill Towns Trail.
And now, with no explanation anywhere that I’ve been able to find, it has become a 1.5 mile trail, with no plans/money to extend it to Dundas.
What happened?
When I developed the Cannon Commercial Center (AmericInn, Bierman’s, etc.) the city required me to put a trail along the river. Their specs called for a graded trail finished with shredded bark. I complied with the requirement, but I’ll have to say in the several years that I was working in the area I never did see anyone use the trail. It eventually was totally overgrown and ignored.
I concur with David K’s comments: budgeting for ongoing maintenance is crucial to any public project. Without that, we just end up with a bunch of junk scattered around town.
I don’t have time today to dig into this but see this article in last weekend’s Nfld News: DNR do-over nets city more money for trail
As I mentioned in Post 5 above, I hope that this extra money will be used to start an endowment or separate account at the City for the future maintenance of the trail that is already planned/built. It should not go to get “more.”
David:
Doesn’t look like that’s an option:
The City of course does need to worry about maintenance costs, but that’s not the purpose of grant money. This money will need to be used to extend the trail if they want it at all.
While the current route does seem to be used, I do wish it were connected in a way that allows it to be mutually beneficial for trail users and businesses. That is to say, there should be direct access to the S Hwy 3 businesses it runs adjacent to, and signage, etc to reflect their presence. Theoretically, this route has uninterrupted trail access from 5th and Water to:
Culvers
El Tequila/Curves strip mall
Tobacco Field
Tacoasis
George’s Vineyard
Cannon Valley Vet’s pharmaceutical facility (employees)
Cannon Valley printing (employees)
Northfield Ice Area
Bierman’s
Tokyo Grill
AmericInn (bike rental/tourism opportunities with direct access to downtown)
This has a lot of potential value for business, which could ultimately justify assessments to cover maintenance costs. RIght now, unfortunately, it’s not set up to access any of those things. It has only direct access to Babcock Park and and the old Village School site. Integrating with businesses seems win-win, and could provide revenue for trail maintenance.
From today’s City Administrator’s Memo:
Thanks should go to Erica Zweifel for bringing the changed grant guidelines to staff’s attention and making sure the item was on the Council agenda in time to take action – thanks, Erica!