Trails in the News - Press Clipping Files

01/13/2008

MDOT Announces $1 million Grant to Link East Park with Magnus Park

A new link in the Little Traverse Wheelway is one of 17 trail and streetscape projects around the state which the Michigan Department of Transportation will help fund using federal Transportation Enhancement dollars, MDOT announced Thursday.

MDOT will provide slightly more than $1 million toward construction of a trail link between Petoskey’s Magnus Park and Resort Township’s East Park near Bay Harbor. As a match for this grant, Petoskey will provide an additional $288,376 in city funds toward the project.

City parks and recreation director Al Hansen said Petoskey officials had been anticipating the grant. With the vast majority of design and engineering work for the project now complete, he added that MDOT recently confirmed that the funds would be awarded.

The project will fill a missing link in the wheelway, a paved trail for non-motorized use that currently stretches from the northern outskirts of Charlevoix through Petoskey to the intersection of M-119 and Pleasantview Road near Harbor Springs.
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“What we’re hoping to do is have this out to bid by late spring,” Hansen said. “By late spring or early summer, we’ll have a contractor selected.”

Hansen expects the trail construction can be completed within 2008.

Along with MDOT and Petoskey, the trail project has involved cooperation from Emmet County and Resort Township. County officials acquired some properties to be part of the trail corridor, with Resort assisting in the acquisition process.

In all, MDOT announced $8.8 million in Transportation Enhancement grants Thursday. These will be used in developing 24.7 miles of non-motorized trails and 4.7 miles of streetscape improvements around the state, with ground to be broken for all projects in 2008.

The federal funds administered by MDOT provide a maximum of 80 percent of the money required for each project, with the remainder coming from state and local government and the private sector.

Ryan Bentley439-9342 - rbentley@petoskeynews.com

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