The Ypsilanti City Council's endorsement last month of a $300,000 Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNRTF) grant application to build a permanent Border to Border Trail (B to B) segment from Michigan Avenue south along the Huron River to sidewalk and bike lanes on S. Grove Street will bring more closure to gaps in the non-motorized trail that will eventually span Washtenaw County.
The approximately ¾-mile path "would finally connect the city of Ypsilanti with Ypsilanti Township. That would be two major population areas finally connected by a non-motorized trail," says Bob Krzewinski, coordinator of
Friends of the Border to Border Trail. "The trail is basically on-street right now, but it's pretty confusing, and taking away the confusion factor would be a definite plus."
Should the application be approved – the city should know by November, Krzewinski says – then the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Department will match the grant with an additional $292,000 in funding. Should everything go smoothly, construction could start in the summer of 2013, he says.
Another $300,000 MNRTF grant was approved last fall for a B to B trail non-motorized bridge segment across the Huron. The original plan was to build it underneath the Michigan Avenue vehicle bridge, but the state of Michigan and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources denied the permit for structural reasons.
"So the plan right now is to still build a bridge, but it's going to go from Riverside Park and it'll hook up right at the east end of the Michigan Avenue vehicle bridge. So it'll be a surface crossing of Michigan Avenue, and what they're hoping to get also is if anyone wants to cross there, there'll be a lighted pedestrian signal so traffic would have to stop to let people cross," Krzewinski explains.
He figures construction on that could start sometime either late this summer or early fall and be complete by spring 2013.
"With the recreation center hopefully being built [on the Water Street parcel]...that would definitely be a plus, and the trail along the river will hopefully increase the property value of that whole area because it's a great recreation source," Krzewinski says.
Source: Bob Krzewinski, coordinator, Friends of the Border to Border Trail; City of Ypsilanti
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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