06-22-1993 PTRC Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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5 Trail. The trail is partially complete, including the Gateway Trail, a 19 mile segment from Camelian Junction in rural Washington County to the intersection of Arlington Avenue and I 35E. Linking the Gateway to the capitol is the next step. Trail design and placement obviously becomes more difficult end costly in urbanized, densely populated areas. Barriers in the form of freeways, safety hazards,and dense auto traffic can stall and complicate development. The link from Arlington to the capitol has been divided into four segments with the first two miles proceeding south to the intersection of Cayuga Street and I-35#.This short segment will provide access to neighborhoods and area businesses includ- ing K-Mart.The most formidable obstacle is a route over or through Trout Brook Valley. While Trout Brook Valley sounds charming,this former riverbed is now the site of Burlington Northern and Soo Line railroad tracks. A new bridge will likely be a part of the estimated$1,100,000 cost for this two mile segment. Fabulous idea. Too bad Spanning Trout Brook Valley,former river bed,now a railroad bed,is a major it didn't work! barrier to completion of a key trail link(see Gateway Link),That deed was nearly accomplished while preserving a charming historic St.Paul bridge. Sadly, the clock ran out before the wrecking ball arrived. Actually it wasn't a wrecking ball but a giant metal snipping machine,but you get the point. The whole scheme hatched in the fertile mind of Dan Collins, DNR official responsible for completing the Gateway Trail. Whether it was something he ate or something he dreamed,Collins suddenly visualized the old Selby Avenue bridge gracefully arching over Trout Brook Valley. The thought of saving a historically and architecturally significant bridge while solving his problem of getting bikers from one side of the tracks to the other was just too delicious. Collins brought together Mat Hollinshead,St.Paul Bicycle Advisory Board,Bob Piram,St.Paul Superintendent of Parks,Tom Eggum,Director of Public Works, Paula Maccabee,City Council member,Art Werthauser,City Bridge Engineer, and a few other dreamers and those who thought they had just wandered into someone else's nightmare. The bridge was already scheduled for demolition but the contractor said he was willing to skip that,for$60,000. His plan was to pluck the truss off the supports and set it 200 yards away on Soo Line property. He also wanted a contingency plan in case no method was found to reinstall it at the Gateway. That was one problem down. All it was going to take was money. Then came another problem. The bridge had years of paint and re-paint on it. It was highly likely the paint included lead and chromium. More money. $200,000 to sand blast the bridge. More money to get rid of the hazardous waste. Moving the bridge to the new site. Technically possible. Costs money. A grant application to the Minnesota Department of Transportation for federal transportation money was submitted,but in the end,the bridge came tumbling down. The dreamers dreamed dreams but could not conjure up enough money