While it still needs final approval from Detroit’s City Council, it appears the biggest missing piece from the East Riverwalk is moving forward. This piece is between Mt. Elliot Park and MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle. It’s on the old Uniroyal site which is undergoing environmental cleanup.

This is a major missing Riverwalk segment because the alternative routes are currently Jefferson Avenue or Lafayette. Both are out of the way and Jefferson is not a welcoming road for many cyclists.

In conjunction with the announcement, Phase II of the Dequindre Cut design is moving forward. Phase II continues the trail north past Eastern Market and up to Mack. At Mack, the abandoned railroad is back at the street level grade.

A third bit of good news is that the Free Press printing press building on the West Riverfront is currently being demolished. That property was purchased by the Riverfront Convervancy and will help jumpstart development on the West Riverwalk.

Additional information as reported by Crain’s:

Work on the east end of Detroit’s riverfront, including extension of the Riverwalk, got approvals from the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. Tuesday.

A $40 million funding agreement for Phase 3 of the Riverwalk improvement project was OK’d, the next step for work to get underway on the landscaped walk/bike path from Rivard Street to Gabriel Richard Park and a pavilion on city property.

It runs around the U.S. Coast Guard station through Mt. Elliott Park, under the McArthur Bridge leading to Belle Isle and to Gabriel Richard Park.Also approved Tuesday was a proposal to hire JJR L.L.C., Ann Arbor-based engineers and landscape architects, to design Phase II of the Dequindre Cut Greenway project between Gratiot and Mack avenues.

Tags: Dequindre Cut, Detroit, Detroit Riverwalk

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Detroit, Trails. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.