Earlier in the year I filled you in on some federal grants applications for trail improvements. I wanted to let you know that a great deal of them were successful and the trail system will be expanding over the next 4 years.
There is a group called the Platte County Parks Partners which is a group of Park Board, elected, and administrative officials from Parkville, KCMO, Riverside, and the County that meet every so often. Below is a map created for that group showing the existing and future system for Northland.
The key thing to note is that the spine of the system continues to grow along 152. The vision for this system is to be a recreational trail system but also a bicycle commuting system to connect all residents within a mile of a trail system that connects to employment centers along the I-29/Barry Road corridors, Briarcliff, KCI, and eventually downtown.
For those of you that may be thinking to yourself why are we spending money on "fou-fou" trails you need to keep this in mind. The federal government has a massive FHWA/FTA bureaucracy. That massive bureaucracy has created a massive federal highway bill. That massive federal highway bill has a gazillion special interest groups that have lobbied for certain things. One of the categories that is set aside is a program called the "Transportation Alternatives Program" which only funds projects that expand the transportation network for people who aren't in cars.
If the cities in Platte County didn't apply for these funds....they'd be spent.....are you sitting down..........................................south of the River!
Here is the map specifically for Platte County.
Applying and getting grant money is the easy part. Now some poor lackey has to go through a bunch of inane processes and get the jobs done. Building a trail using federal funds is like pregnancy. The nine months (or usually 2.5 years) of puking, fatigue, weight gain, emotions, etc is all forgotten once you hold the baby for the first time.
Thank you all again for comments or letters of support and please let your electeds know how much you appreciate what's been done to date. I would also let the folks at MoDOT know how much you appreciate all of these connected trails. A lot of them wouldn't be possible without their cooperation and permission to use their right of way. You can let them know here or via Twitter.
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