Floods Damage Rail-Trails. Recently flooding in southeast Kansas has damaged sections of the Flint Hills Nature Trail and the Prairie Spirit Trail. Minor washouts and downed timber were discovered west of Osawatomie on the FHNT but the downed trees have already been removed and the washouts will be restored soon. At Ottawa the trail suffered a long washout of the original railroad rock ballast and a panel on a bridge was damaged. The Prairie Spirit Trail suffered substantial damage with huge washouts including any remaining ballast and a 200-foot-long bridge over Pottawatomie Creek was destroyed. Plus there are many large erosion gullies along the rail-trail treadway.
Burroughs Creek Trail Master Plan Nearing Approval. A final public presentation was held July 9 in Lawrence on the Burroughs Creek Trail Master Plan. The 1.7-mile rail-trail will stretch from 11th Street to 23rd Street in eastern Lawrence along the former BNSF rail corridor. It will connect with the Haskell Rail-Trail at 23rd St. on and new plans now call for extending the Haskell Rail-Trail south two blocks to 31st Street.
An engineer and landscape architect with Bartlett & West Engineers presented the semi-final plan and solicited public comment. Once the plan is finalized and approved by the Lawrence City Commission, acquisition of the corridor will start. However, funding for actual trail construction has yet to be found and due to budget constraints, the trail will be built in several phases. Federal Transportation Enhancement funds may be sought but apparently KDOT has slashed available TE funds by $4 million. This is in contrast to Missouri where funding levels were maintained because of the power of the bicyclist lobby. So, far KDOT totally eliminated funding for two years this decade.
Several side trails to neighborhoods are planned plus 50 feet of original railroad tracks will be retained and possibly an old, semi-abandoned caboose now in the BNSF yard will be place on the tracks. Long-range plans also include establishing an Heirloom Garden, Labyrinth, and Spray Play Area at the main trailhead at 15th Street. Also, trail wheels (similar to traffic calming circles) will be established near street crossings to slow down trail users prior to crossing the streets. Plans by ECO2 call for extending the Haskell Trail-Trail south to the Wakarusa River and the Burroughs Creek Trail north to the 11-mile levee trail on the north side of the Kaw River. It would then be renamed the Two Rivers or River to River Trail.
Footpath Around Great Britain Underway. The British Government has announced plans to build a footpath around the entire 9,040 miles of coastline. Officials with Natural England will negotiate with landowners to secure coastal access rights. Below are excerpts from “Coastline Access Plan Unveiled” published in the Guardian (June 19, 2007)
Environment Secretary David Miliband said, “The success of the ‘right to roam’ on open countryside has shown that people are responsible about increased access and want to enjoy it in a mature way. That greatly encourages us to press ahead with opening up the coast.”
Scotland has a well-established corridor, which has been used as a model for the new scheme, 30 percent of England's 2,500 miles of coast is still private….Establishing a complete path around the shoreline is expected to cost £50 million and take ten years to build