We got a TIGER for the trail!
After getting rejected for funding in the TIGER III, the city of Detroit and collaborators tweaked the grant proposal and re-submitted for TIGER IV.
We didn’t get the $15.3 million we asked for, but we did get $10 million.
What does this fund? The proposal centers around Eastern Market by improving streetscapes and bridges, while making three non-motorized connections via a Dequindre Cut extension, another segment of the Midtown Loop, and bike lanes to the proposed Hamtramck Trails network.
There’s more coverage on the MTGA web site and in articles by Crain’s Detroit Business and mLIVE.
Globe Trading Building
While these greenway connections improve access to Eastern Market, they also improve access for bicyclists and pedestrians heading to the Detroit RiverWalk and Milliken State Park. As for the latter, last month the DNR announced their $12.8 million investment in an Outdoor Discovery Adventure Center in the park and along the Dequindre Cut.
This Free Press article makes it sound like quite the trail-side attraction.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said this morning it anticipates as many as a million visitors a year coming to its planned discovery center to be built in the historic Globe Building on Detroit?s east riverfront.
Features will include a 60-foot climbing wall, an archery range, simulator rides demonstrating kayaking and other water sports, and classrooms to teach schoolchildren and other visitors outdoor safety as well as the science of natural resources and wetlands.
And yes, a young Henry Ford was an apprentice in this building while working on ship engines.
Given the current state of the Globe Trading Building, it’s difficult imagining that it will be open next year, but that is the timeline.
The DNR also expects a million visitors a year.
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Tags: Dequindre Cut, Detroit, DNR, Eastern Market, Globe Trading Building, Hamtramck, Midtown Loop, TIGER IV, William Milliken State Park