Following up on yesterday's NW 64th Street/Southern Platte Pass Trail post, a big connector from the Line Creek Trail is under construction that is going to make a big difference in getting around by bike and for all the folks that live on the west side of Line Creek. Both the I-29 outer roads, Prairie View and Roanridge, have nice wide, bike-able shoulders. However, if someone is using Prairie View to come down from Zona or even the KCI area, there is no safe way to get through the I-29/I-635 interchange from Prairie View or Roanridge to the Line Creek Trail. That means anyone wishing to bike commute has to backtrack a couple of miles via 64th Street to safely get to Riverside/NKC/DT. I've gone through here before but only going north out of Riverside then using the NB Gateway on-ramp and then tossing my bike over the highway fence onto Roanridge and going through the fence where others had cut the chain link because some people have to walk through there like this guy who was walking through. This picture was taken as I was biking.
In case you aren't familiar with the area because you don't live in the Sunpointe Village subdivision area, NW 56th Street just dead ends. Why does it dead end? Well the elevation difference between where 56th ends and Waukomis intersects on the other side is 80-90 feet so it is economically and environmentally unfeasible to ever have a street connection between the two because it would require moving a 16" waterline cut through the trees, cutting 10-15 feet into solid rock, and probably a 300-400 foot long bridge over Line Creek.
There used to be a way to get through from the intersection of 56th/Byfield to Waukomis and you can read about it and the old bridge along the Line Creek Trail here. You can also take a look at the 1964 aerial for the area and the tract of ground that is being used to build the trail by clicking here. Here is how the trail connector will be laid out to connect between the Line Creek Trail and 56th and still be within a usable grade.
One huge suck thing about this area is the honeysuckle has consumed it and is choking out everything. Fortunately equipment makers have invented a grinder that fits on the front of a skid loader and not only clears brush, it grinds it up and leaves it in place. This is a picture, taken from the dead end of 56th, of the track hoe from the rear (shaddup) and a peek at the grinder.
That little machine takes care of all that nasty honeysuckle in no time. This is looking south from NW 56th Street. Note that this was the old roadbed of how people got to Riverside and there is a power line with transformer which used to serve an old farmhouse on the property.
The trail will curve to the east/left from the picture above and you can start to see some of the beauty of this piece of park property. This is looking due east.
Recently a sanitary sewer was put in because a lot of the houses south of 56th were built pre-KCMO annexation and are on septic tank. The cleared area is one of those sanitary sewers. This is looking southeast.
The cleared area for the sewer does have some advantages. Even though it took out some trees, it did take out a lot of honeysuckle and opened up views of the valley. This is looking east along the sewer and showing a glimpse of the topography.
The next picture is looking southeast and shows another place where the trail crosses the sewer and shows the big drop off down to the Line Creek Trail. You may be asking why didn't the trail just follow the sewer and the answer is that the sewer doesn't have to have a reasonble grade or worry about complying with Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines. The trail needs to be longer than the sewer and zig zag so that the 80-90 foot elevation difference can be spread out. Also, it doesn't make sense to put a trail on top off or too close to a sewer because someday that sewer will need to be repaired or replaced and the trail needs to be far enough away to not be impacted.
That being said, a little bit of the trail is near the sewer as shown by the pink survey stakes. This is looking northwest and will be a slightly flat part of the trail. Note the beauty of the oaks (and the evil of the yellow honeysuckle).
This next picture is looking north near the halfway point with the vista of the very dense oaks showing some beautiful color this fall.
This show is looking northwest with the trail on the left of the silt fence. I just included it because it shows the healthy oaks and a strand of cedars. It also shows how Ozarky this piece of ground is.
This next shot is looking 180 degrees from the picture above and looking east. Here is where the bluff falls off to the Line Creek valley. This part is going to be the challenge for anyone on a bike getting a start up the trail.
Lastly in case you were wondering where it will tie into the Line Creek Trail, this is looking north and it's about 300 or so feet south of the retaining wall and old bridge. The new trail will be before the cleared area.
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