With approximately $630,000 in grant funding, members of the Trail Committee are making plans for final review of trail design by the Missouri Department of Transportation.
The trail network was originally planned and a committee formed to provide hiking and biking access to all municipal parks and public schools in Maryville.
The Mozingo portion of the trails project has been turned in for review by MoDOT, while the Safe Routes to School portion is being finished and ready for review.
Maryville City Manager Matt LeCerf said the amount of time it will take for the construction of the trail system to begin depends on how MoDOT feels about their submission.
"The timeline is determined by the review process," LeCerf said. "If MoDOT, after the review, says we're good to go, if they approve our design, we can also go out to bid."
LeCerf said he estimates that time to be as many as 75 days. MoDOT takes 20 days for the review process, the city goes out to bid for 30 days and MoDOT then again has to approve the bids — tacking on an additional 10 days.
"Then you have to get a contractor mobilized," LeCerf said. "There are a lot of outside factors that we can't control when it comes to receiving state and federal funds. Those checks and balances have to be in place."
The Mozingo trail portion is approximately 7,500 linear feet, while the Safe Routes portion is approximately 6,000 linear feet.
While the city has to wait for approval, Northwest Missouri State University announced plans to have their three sections of bicycle paths on the campus completed by late summer.
While the projects are separately funded, Lezlee Johnson, associate director of Environmental Services at Northwest, has been a part of the Trail Committee meetings from the beginning. The campus paths will eventually connect to the trail network the city is working on.
Johnson said the concrete campus paths will be eight to 10 feet wide, and are being funded by a $208,000 MoDOT grant and a university match of $60,000.
The three paths being constructed on the Northwest campus will equal eight-tenths of a mile, and will provide easier, safer access between the campus, Country Club Drive and the Donaldson Westside SK8 Park. Country Club is the only road in Maryville with a designated bike lane.
"One of the things we know is that, increasingly, for a community to be successful, it needs to be walkable, environmentally friendly and pedestrian friendly — and that includes being bicycle friendly," Johnson said.
"This will be an important connection for Northwest and the whole concept of a trail system through the city of Maryville."
For more information on the trail system contact Matt LeCerf at (660) 562-8001 or Lezlee Johnson at (660) 562-1473.
The Trail Committee is also currently working on approval of a trail logo to be posted along trail routes. To view and vote on three versions of the logo visit the city's Web site at www.maryville.org.