Planning near completion for Munn Ave. trail

The city of Maryville has announced that preliminary design work is nearing completion for a new pedestrian trail along the west side of South Munn Avenue extending north between South Avenue and Victory Lane.

An addition to the city's growing network of paved hiking/biking paths, the six-foot-wide trail will connect to pedestrian improvements planned in conjunction with next year's reconstruction of Munn between South Avenue and Highway V.

Munn is the sole access route to Maryville High School, and the heavily traveled street is badly deteriorated in places, especially in front of the R-II School District's bus parking area.

There will be a public meeting about the Munn Street trail at 6 p.m. Thursday, January 10, at City Hall. Engineers from Snyder & Associates and municipal staff will be on hand to discuss the project, answer questions and address residents' concerns.

Grant funding for the project was awarded four years ago through the Missouri Department of Transportation's Transportation Enhancement Program, and the public meeting is a requirement that must be met before the city submits plans to MoDOT for final approval.

The street reconstruction itself, which affects the portion of Munn south of the proposed trail, is set to begin next spring and will take about eight months to complete. Weather permitting, the city is hoping to wrap the project up by mid-October.

Cost of laying down the concrete street, complete with curbs, gutters and storm water drainage infrastructure, is estimated at $2 million, which will come from revenues derived from the city's half-cent capital improvements sales tax, a 10-year levy approved by voters in 2008.

The tax, often referred to simply as the CIP, has been used to fund several big-ticket initiatives inside the city limits, including reconstruction of parts of Main Street and 16the Street. CIP funds are also helping to finance the re-build of South Depot Street on the east side of town, a project that got underway this fall.

City officials estimate the tax will raise about $8 million dollars before it expires in 2018. Overall plans for spending much of the remainder of that money are already in place.

When completed, the new section of Munn will embrace a 22-foot-wide driving surface with adjoining five-foot-wide bicycle lanes, designated with paint, on each side. If the city can afford it, there is also an alternate plan for a paved, eight-foot-wide biking and hiking path.

The walking and pedaling lanes will be designed to connect to the new section of trail between South Avenue and  Victory Lane.

During the early phases of construction, the north end of South Munn near South Avenue will be closed completely, since affected homeowners, along with the Nazarene Church and Parkdale Manor nursing home, are accessible using alternate routes.

By the time crews reach Maryville High School, however, work will be limited to one lane or the other so that residents can still drive to their homes. This portion of the project will begin after school is out for the summer when traffic into MHS is sparse.

The final third of the work, which is to continue until around Oct. 15, will also be done one lane at a time in order to keep Munn open to local traffic. However, through-traffic will be barred, and access to the high school will be open only from the north. Bus routes will be modified accordingly.