KC Riverfront Heritage Trail

carfreekc · Post by **carfreekc** » Sat May 22, 2004 10:54 am

In case anyone is interested and there's still room (which I don't know since I can't go), I saw the following notice on a postcard.

Grand Opening Preview
The Riverfront Heritage Trail
May 25, 2004

Please join us at historic Union Station for a bus tour of Kansas City's newest landmark: The Riverfront Heritage Trail. A ten-mile hike-bike trail along the scenic riverfront, linking Richard L. Berkley Riverfront Park with the Strawberry Hill and Westside neighborhoods.

RSVP Bus Tour: 5 p.m.
Open Reception at Union Station IMAX Lobby: 6:15-7:45 p.m.
Special IMAX showing of "Lewis & Clark": 7:45-8:30 p.m.

There is no charge for this event, so come be among the first to see this exciting new Kansas City amenity. Please RSVP today, as space is limited for the tour.

RSVP to:

Darby Trotter, KC River Trails President and CEO
816.283.3223 Ext. 6499
darbytrotter@kcrivertrails.org

scooterj · Post by **scooterj** » Sat May 22, 2004 12:19 pm

I'm puzzled.... how do you take a bus-tour of a hike-bike rail that, other than the on-street segments, is almost unreachable by road?

scooterj · Post by **scooterj** » Sat May 22, 2004 12:20 pm

dangerboy wrote:The trail and park areas are not going to be anywhere near finished in time for Lewis and Clark. the trail surface itself is in place, but little else. There is still a lot of general debris all around, as well as several old building foundations, part so retaining walls, etc. The area is still going to be a construction scene during the L&C festivities.

The old buildings/foundtations/retaining walls aren't going away as far as I know. They could at least get the segment between Main and the ASB Bridge done by then if they hurry and get some landscaping going.

carfreekc · Post by **carfreekc** » Mon May 24, 2004 1:47 am

scooterj wrote:I'm puzzled.... how do you take a bus-tour of a hike-bike rail that, other than the on-street segments, is almost unreachable by road?

Dunno...maybe they'll park at points along the way and make 'em hike over to the trail?

trailerkid · Post by **trailerkid** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 10:42 pm

The Star ran a good editorial today cheering on the riverfront trail:

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... 805593.htm

Just like the downtown signage system, the riverfront trail is a non-glamourous project that really will do a great amount of good for the core. We are connecting inner city neighborhoods with pedestrian and bike trails. These are the types of projects that should be bistate.

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 11:16 pm

Anybody checked this out? It's supposed to open on the July 4th weekend. I might go check it out over the next couple of days.

Post by **dangerboy** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:18 am

I was there last weekend. There is still so much work to finish. They seem to still be working on the sewer project. The tunnel under the ASB Bridge is no where near complete. Still no lights or benches. The brick building is still being demolished.

Sadly it looks doubtful that much will be done by July 4th.

KCPowercat · Post by **KCPowercat** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:19 am

daily rain can't be helping them.

Post by **dangerboy** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 7:18 pm

One week before the big Lewis and Clark event, and the trail is no where near presentable. The high-profile segment between Berkely Park and the Main St. pedestrian bridge hasn't been worked at all since at least March. All efforts have been on replacing the Main Street sewer line so that a tunnel can be constructed under the ASB Bridge.

What a disappointment. Here is what the thousands of people coming for the Lewis and Clark event will see. Debris, abandoned foundations and footings, graphitti, weeds, even sandbags leftover from the 1993 flood.

(enlarge)

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More photos of the trail and construction:
http://www.kcskyscrapers.com/kcpics/riverfronttrail

rxlexi · Post by **rxlexi** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 5:59 pm

what the hell is going on with this project? when is the estimated time of completion? I've walked the small semi-completed part of it and the potential is as awesome as the current reality is depressing. I can't wait to use this trail all the time, if they ever decide to finish it

JerseyGuy · Post by **JerseyGuy** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 7:56 pm

I walked down there a few times just after the Fourth of July and there were a bunch of signs placed along the path stating what's proposed for a particular area. On the bottom of the signs, though, it stated something to the effect that funding is still needed and gave a # to call if a person wanted to help out.

I agree that it will be awesome when it's completed. From the archeological dig of the original Town of Kansas, to the proposed restaurant and the observation building, ect, ect ect.

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:07 pm

I'm starting to wonder if they will pull this off. They can't half ass this project or it will get a typical "KC Bad Rap" and never recover.

Post by **dangerboy** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 4:27 pm

No progress since July 4th. The Main Street sewer repairs were finished over the summ, and since then no work on the trail except for some grass seed. The wetlands area was originally supposed to be finished in 2002 - oops.

Surely money can be found somewhere, especially with all of the infrastructure bonds that we have passed in the last 3 years.

scooterj · Post by **scooterj** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 5:29 pm

There's actually been progress in one spot that you cannot yet get to, they finished building a new riverbank under the ASB bridge and a rock bed and railings have been installed where the trail will hug the river as it goes under thee bridge.

Still it's been a while since that's been finished and there's been no sign of anyone going in to actually build a trail atop that rock bed yet.

Post by **dangerboy** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 12:26 pm

Coolio. I couldn't tell if they were building the underpass along with the sewer project or not. There shouldn't be too much left to connect the two segments.

Post by **dangerboy** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:11 pm

The chainlink fencing between the park and the HOQ Bridge tracks has been replaced with an iron fence and gates. For the past week those gates have been open, allowing people to pass between the park and the western section of the trail.

These gates are motorized and appear to be automated. Perhaps the railroad has given in and allowed the city have pedestrian access across the tracks?

shinatoo · Post by **shinatoo** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 6:05 pm

I was looking at the proposed Rock Island connection to the Katty Trail. this would be a great rout if they extended it all the way into the city. Basicaly it would come out of Pleasent Hill through Raytown, past the Stadiums and on into the east bottoms where it could connect to the Riverfront area. It connects like this in St.Charles. It actual ends right at the Katty Trail brewing company. That would be a spctacular addition to the area.

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:52 am

shinatoo wrote:I was looking at the proposed Rock Island connection to the Katty Trail. this would be a great rout if they extended it all the way into the city. Basicaly it would come out of Pleasent Hill through Raytown, past the Stadiums and on into the east bottoms where it could connect to the Riverfront area. It connects like this in St.Charles. It actual ends right at the Katty Trail brewing company. That would be a spctacular addition to the area.

Isn't that one of the proposed commuter rail routes?

shinatoo · Post by **shinatoo** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 10:22 am

GRID wrote:
shinatoo wrote:I was looking at the proposed Rock Island connection to the Katty Trail. this would be a great rout if they extended it all the way into the city. Basicaly it would come out of Pleasent Hill through Raytown, past the Stadiums and on into the east bottoms where it could connect to the Riverfront area. It connects like this in St.Charles. It actual ends right at the Katty Trail brewing company. That would be a spctacular addition to the area.
Isn't that one of the proposed commuter rail routes?

It should be. But the railroad that bought it is setting on it because they "might use it in the distant future".

I always thought they should just pave it and run MAX busses on it. They wouldn't have to stop for traffic and it would be much cheaper than rail.

BTW MAX is a horrible name they should have called it the RaBiT, get it Rapid Bus Transit.

Sorry, I have wondered way off topic and will stop now.

TheBigChuckbowski · Post by **TheBigChuckbowski** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 8:43 pm

I haven't seen any posts but kcrivertrails.org has renderings up for the ASB underpass and the river bluff bridge. It says they're $30,000 short of building the underpass.

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