Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 05/13/2010

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PROJECT DESCRIPTION Provide a map of the project location within the context of its city and county. Please see Anoka County Regional Trail Map attachment. Describe the opportunity that the proposed project is taking advantage of or the nature of the problem that it aims to address: This transportation enhancement project will provide the critical multimodal missing link between two cities, provide bicyclists and pedestrians safe routes east and west along US Hwy's #10 & #169. This highway in the immediate vicinity of this transportation project has 43,500 vehicle trips per day (2006). There are no facilities or frontage roads connecting Anoka and Ramsey on either side of Hwy's #10 & #169 for pedestrians and bicyclists - and walking or biking on this highway would put personal safety in jepordy. The project is especially significant as in addition to recreation; this missing link is an impediment to sustainable economic development between two adjacent cities with a strong manufacturing industry, with many workers being forced to use or arrange for short distance automobile commuting, as additionally, this project area is not served by Metro Transit. Provide a description (no more than one page) of the project. This project consists of over one mile of 10' bituminous trail, and nine tenths' of a mile of 8' foot concrete trail, with two 10' wide bridges and associated enhancements. This trail project will connect two different, but complimentary municipal parks, both of which will be `pearls-on-the-string' of the important National and Regional Mississippi River Trail -and provide connections to the river, as well as link to Ramsey's transit orientated Town Center when the Hwy #10 & #169 pedestrian overpass is complete. In each park will be interpretive displays with elements of public art. The content and design will be a service- learning collaboration between the Political Science and Art Departments' at the Anoka-Ramsey Community College. One of the signs will discuss the history of transportation in the area -beginning with river travel by the earliest indigenous inhabitants of the state, and then progressing through the periods of the pre-settlement exploration, Red River Ox Carts, steamboat travel, the railroads, the so-called Military Highway, to our post- modern era; leading up to the implementation of transit, commuter rail and concepts of sustainable transportation systems. The display at Anoka's Mississippi Community Park will focus on the Natural History of the Mississippi, the anthropocentric values of the river over time; and our changing views of both rivers and modes of travel -leading up to the designation of this area as the most unique National Park in America, as well as highlighting this project. Beginning in Anoka's park at an existing trail, the project will commence with a naturalized and landscaped concrete tiered `Redi-Rock' wall system on either side of the oxbow channel that surrounds King's Island. Upon this wall will be a 10' foot wide arched bridge, suitable for use of #12,000 lb maintenance equipment. (The image below shows the location of the elements this part of the narrative discusses.)