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katy trail
Katy Trail Connection settlement approved
Missouri bicyclists, walkers, runners, and trail users,
The Taum Sauk Settlement was approved by the judge yesterday. It still includes the $18 million and the trail agreement for the use of the Rock Island RR corridor to connect the Katy Trail to Pleasant Hill, on the edge of the KC metro area.
Your emails, letters, and phone calls during the public comment period (over 1800 in a space of 10 days) certainly played a part in ensuring that the Katy Trail portion remained part of the agreement.
The next hurdles:
* The $18 million will be part of DNR's budget, which will need to be approved by the Missouri legislature.
We are already moving to let legislators know of the tremendous public supoprt for the Katy Trail connection.
* Can DNR complete the Katy Connection within the 3 year time frame and $18 million budget that they have set for themselves?
Agreement announced for "Complete Katy Trail"
Today the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Attorney General's Office, and AmerenUE announced an agreement regarding the Taum Sauk dam disaster.
The agreement includes about $180 million in reparation payments from Ameren.
Included in the settlement is the agreement to give DNR a "trail license agreement" to build a trail on the portion of the Rock Island corridor needed to connect the Katy Trail to Pleasant Hill, Missouri. Pleasant Hill is on the edge of the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Union Pacific owns the Rock Island line from From Pleasant Hill on in to Kansas City, and plans are already underway to connect the trail through Lee's Summit and eventually to downtown Kansas City via alternate routes.)
The portion of the Rock Island corridor that will be used for the trail is about 46 miles.
The trail will be a "rails-with-trails" project--the trail will be built in the railroad right-of-way alongside the railroad tracks so that the railroad can still use the corridor in the future.
