Detroit Free Press

The Detroit Free Press is reporting on Macomb County’s ambitious plans for a non-motorized trail which would encircle the county. The resulting trail would be 70 miles long and completed in 2011.

An ambitious $8.5-million project is under way to connect several existing hike-bike trails into a giant, continuous loop that officials say will stretch from central to northern Macomb County and — hopefully — attract hikers, cyclers, runners and joggers from across the region.

The plans call for the loop to connect the Macomb Orchard Trail in the northern section of the county, south to the Stony Creek Metro Park Trail, east to the Metro Beach Trail, through Mt. Clemens, and then back up to the Macomb Orchard Trail.

This trail loop could connect to Detroit through a much-discussed connection to the Conner Creek Greenway. It could also connect to Madison Heights using a trail along the Red Run.

Link: Macomb County Trailways Master Plan

While this news is welcomed, we certainly would like to see equal effort put towards making Macomb County roads more bike-friendly.

And as we noted earlier the Road Commission for Macomb County is uninformed and unwilling to implement safe cycling on their roads. That simply needs to change if Macomb County hopes to remain competitive with respect to creating liveable communities.

The first round of Metro Detroit’s transportation stimulus checks are in the mail and some are for major bike projects.

This funding is mostly from 3% transportation enhancements sub-allocation, which is $25.4 million for all of Michigan.

I-275 Bike Path (MDOT)

The original $10 million request to recontruct the bike path was reduced to two requests. The first is for $4 million. The second is for $5 million and will only be available if Michigan can recover unused road funds from other states.

Clinton River Trail Bridge (Pontiac)

This bridge at Telegraph and Orchard Lake Road has been long awaited. It will connect the two developed rail-trail segments on both sides of Telegraph. The funding amount is $2.1 million.

Midtown Loop (Detroit)

This $2.3 million in funding is going towards Phase I of the Midtown Loop, a 2-mile walking and (casual) biking loop through Wayne State and cultural center. It’s expected that this stimulus money will push previously secured funding into the second phase and possibly help fund the connector between this project and the Dequindre Cut.

Streetscaping

These projects are aimed at making a road more pedestrian and bicyclist friendly. For example, the Woodward project includes “sidewalks, tree planting, street lights, trash receptacles, bike racks.”

• Woodward in Detroit between I-94 and Euclid (MDOT)
• Monroe and Brush Streets in Greektown, Detroit
• Michigan Avenue in Detroit between Cass and Woodward
• Shelby Street in Detroit between State and Griswold

Transit-Related Projects

Both DDOT and SMART are receiving funds to improve/build bus shelters and related amenities. We’ll contact both to determine whether these projects include bike racks. DDOT has been pursuing bike racks for their bus shelters as well as their buses.

Other Detroit Road Work

We checked and none of MDOT’s Detroit stimulus road work coincides with the city’s non-motorized plan. However MDOT is replacing some bridge decks over I-96 which may coincide with the plan.

Wayne County is receiving funds to reconstruct sections of 7 Mile and Fenkel Roads. Both should have bike lanes. We will contact both Wayne County and the city officials to make sure this is known.

The city of Detroit is receiving over $14.4 million for major street repair. Once we learn which roads those involve we’ll cross check them with the non-motorized plan to see if they are scheduled for bike lanes.

This should clearly show the value of having non-motorized plans in place for cities.

All of MDOT’s Metro Region stimulus projects are available on-line. SEMCOG also has a list of all accepted project requests within their seven-county area.

Today was the joint Senate-House hearing for legislation to better fund Michigan State Parks.

I did some live blogging during the hearing which is on the OurMichiganParks web site.

Nancy Krupiarz, the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance executive director joined me as seen in the photo to the right. Senator Patti Birkholz, one of the chairs of the meeting and long time supporter of Michigan State parks liked my neon green bike pin, a la Congressman Earl Blumenauer.

Unfortunately given the very large turnout to the hearing, we ran out of time before Nancy or I could speak. We did submit our written comments and will likely try again at future hearings on this critical legislation.

Stimulus Funding for the I-275 Bike Path

If you haven’t already contacted your legislator about this, please do so. Reports are coming in about legislators on the west side of the state trying to get this worthy project removed from MDOT’s stimulus funding list. Although nothing is official yet, it may have already been significantly downsized.

I-275/M-5 Path Extension

As we noted earlier, there are plans to extend the I-275 bike path north along the M-5 corridor. Initial plans for the segment between 13 Mile and 14 Mile are on-line.

If you missed the recent public meeting on this project, you can still send your comments to the Wade-Trim project manager, Jamie Brown.

Huron Valley Trail Extension

The Spinal Column is reporting that local officials are continuing to meet to discuss an eastward extension of the Huron Valley Trail. This extension would connect the trail with a planned extension of the West Bloomfield Trail.

Wixom City Manager J. Michael Dornan said … CW3 officials used last week’s meeting to discuss applying for grants to purchase the former Coe Railroad property in three of the communities.

B. Allen Brown, president and CEO of Railmark Holdings, Inc., who owns the railroad, has entered into negotiations to sell the railroad property. West Bloomfield, Walled Lake, Wixom, and Commerce Township officials are discussing the viability of collectively purchasing the 8.08 miles of rail corridor to complete the Huron Valley Trail and West Bloomfield Trail.

Chuck Montange of Montoff Transportation, LLC, known for buying up railroads and converting them into trail systems, is the acting intermediary in the talks. The transaction must be handled by a transportation company. Montange has paid for an appraisal and made arrangements with both Brown and a bank.

This is great news for a key east-west connector that would also tie into the M-5/I-275 bike path.

If your state senator is on this list, it would be extra valuable for you to contact them regarding the below message. They are members of a new senate committee that will be reviewing the stimulus spending:

• Ron JELINEK (R-Three Oaks)
• Jud GILBERT (R-Algonac)
• John PAPPAGEORGE (R-Troy)
• Roger KAHN (R-Saginaw)
• Mark JANSEN (R-Gaines Twp.)
• Mickey SWITALSKI (D-Roseville)
• Deb CHERRY (D-Burton)
• Irma CLARK-COLEMAN (D-Detroit)

From Nancy Krupiarz:

As some of you know, the I-275 Pathway was listed on the MDOT list for federal stimulus dollars. Now that the federal stimulus package has passed, MDOT is wrestling with priorities. The Pathway does rise to the top in terms of priorities. However, there are already constituent letters to legislators from readers who have seen the Pathway on the list and have declared it a waste of money.

Since the final approval of projects will probably end up going through the legislature somehow someway, it is important that the legislators especially with districts along the pathway hear plenty of support from their constituents for this project. This would help a lot in getting these dollars on the ground on the Pathway. So, please contact your state Senator and Representative today. Let them know that:

• This is a major nonmotorized artery for Southeast Michigan, a 43+ mile trail linking up 3 counties and 14 communities. The trail will eventually link up to trails at both the north and south terminus and at several junctures along the way, including Huron Valley Trail, Hines Drive, Canton Township Trails and the Monroe trails.
• This trail is used for commuting to work and school, for recreation, and also serves as a greenbelt along the freeway that is valuable for aesthetics and wildlife habitat.
• It is needed as a framework for active living. As Richard Jackson from the US Center for Disease Control, has said, “It is dishonest to tell our citizens to walk, jog, or bicycle when there is no safe or welcoming place to pursue these life-saving activities.”
• The communities all along the way will be enhanced as they make nonmotorized linkages to this trail. Bikeable/walkable communities are noted as one of the top desired features listed by those seeking homes according the National Association of Homebuilders.

If you don’t know who your legislator is, you can go to http://www.michiganlegislature.org and click on Legislators on the left sidebar. At the bottom of that page, click on Find your representative and Find your senator and fill in your county and zip code and you will get all the information you need.

Thanks for giving your support to the I-275 Pathway!

Nancy Krupiarz
Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance