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Bike, pedestrian trail link plans moving along nicely
By LESTER R. DAILEY
| Article published on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007 |
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CLEARWATER – Plans for a pair of east-west pedestrian and bicycle trails that together will eventually link Clearwater Beach with the north-south Progress Energy Trail that runs parallel to, and just west of, U.S. 19 are proceeding on schedule. At its Sept. 20 meeting, the City Council approved a routine $84,903 amendment to its work order to Wade-Trim, Inc., the engineer of record.
“The Druid Trail and Beach Connector Trail project is needed to provide a critical non-motorized alternative to users traveling east-west within the city of Clearwater,” the cover memo to the work order amendment explained. “In addition, the trails provide an important trail connection within the Pinellas County existing trail network as the only mid-county east-west link between the popular Pinellas Trail and the planned Progress Energy Trail. By connecting these two important north-south trails, the Druid Trail will substantially increase their usefulness.”
The Beach Connector Trail will connect Clearwater Beach with the Pinellas Trail, and the Druid Trail will connect the Pinellas and Progress Energy Trails. The connecting trails, totaling 6 miles, will be built in four phases. The first two phases will make up the Beach Connector Trail, and the third and forth phases will become the Druid Trail.
Phase I will go from the West Spur Connector pedestrian bridge, which is currently being constructed over the Mandalay Channel on Clearwater Beach, to the western end of the Memorial Causeway Bridge. Phase II will go across the Memorial Causeway Bridge into downtown and eastward along the northern edge of Turner Street to the Pinellas Trail.
The third phase will go eastward along the north side of Turner Street and turn southward along the east side of South Greenwood Avenue to the northern edge of Druid Road East, where it will head eastward to Glen Oaks Park. The final phase will run parallel to, and slightly south of, State Road 60, between Glen Oaks Park and the Progress Energy Trail.
The project was divided into four parts to make it easier to obtain funding. It was initially thought that the trails would be financed by a $3.98 million federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Grant, but that grant was withdrawn after only $500,000 had been received because Pinellas County’s air quality was found to be within Environmental Protection Agency standards. Currently, the city is funding the project, but city officials have applied for a state Enhancement Grant, which has been endorsed by the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization and approved by the Florida Department of Transportation. That grant is expected to cover the cost of the first three phases of the estimated $7.7 million project.
“Right now, we don’t have funding for Phase IV so we don’t know when that phase will be completed,” Ken Sides of the city’s Traffic Planning Department said in a Sept. 24 telephone interview. “We’re proceeding with the design of all four phases and hope to construct the first three phases in 2008 and 2009. We’ll construct Phase IV when the funding becomes available.”
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Article published on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007
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