Cedar Valley, Hoover trails get state grants

Two Corridor recreational trail segments are among $3.4 million in state grants approved Tuesday by the Iowa Transportation Commission.

Segments of the Cedar Valley Trail near Center Point and the Hoover Trail near Solon are among six projects out of 43 requests across the state to get money under the State Recreational Trail Program this year.

'Those are pieces of trails that either needed to be paved or are missing links tying together other pieces of trails,” said Craig Markley, systems planning director at the Iowa Department of Transportation.

The Iowa DOT evaluates applications and recommends awards with priority for population served, connection to existing trails, aesthetics of the trail and ability to complete the project within three years.

The state ramped up trail funding to $6 million in 2014 and slipped to $3.4 million this year. That still was up from previous years, but the volume of grant requests always has exceeded the money available, he said. 'It just shows what we have for interest in trails in the state of Iowa,” Markley said. 'We have so much need and interest in developing that system.”

Cedar Valley trail

Linn and Black Hawk county conservation offices jointly requested a grant to pave 3.5 miles of crushed limestone path on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail through Center Point. The $600,000 grant covers about 50 percent of the $1.2 million project.

The remainder will comes from local grants from Center Point, Linn County Trails Association and public money, among other sources, said Ryan Schlader, community outreach for Linn County Conservation.

All but 23 miles in the middle of the Cedar Valley Trail, which connects Ely to Cedar Falls, are paved. The goal is to eventually pave it all, Schlader said. Trail counters have shown a 150 percent increase in use when trails are paved versus unpaved, he said.

'There is a real interest in having these trails paved,” Schlader said.

Construction, which should occur next summer, would extend pavement from where it ends at Schults Road just south of Center Point and extend pavement to Apple Creek Bridge.

HOOVER TRAIL

Johnson County Conservation was awarded $679,699, which is about 60 percent of a $1.1 million project, to complete two miles of the Hoover Trail leaving northbound from Solon.

The segment will go from Solon recreation fields to Highway 382 and use part of the old Rock Island Rail bed, said Brad Freidhof, conservation manager at Johnson County Conservation. This is the first of three phases to connect Solon to Ely by trail.

Grant applications are in the works to fund the remainder of the 5.9-mile, $4.3 million project, with completion targeted for 2018, Freidhof said. A local conservation bond, which accrues $1 million annually, will cover the remainder of costs.

'We've got this money for this one, and we are already thinking, what's the next one,” Freidhof said. 'It's all about long-term planning.”

The Cedar Valley and Hoover Trails are noted in the Iowa DOT grant summary as part of the American Discovery Trail, the only coast-to-coast non-motorized recreational trail in the United States. The trail stretches 6,800 miles across 15 states, according to the American Discovery Trail Society.

Other trail grants approved:

' Flint River Trail in Burlington, $398,500.

' Hospital Connector Trail Bridge in Manning, $222,300.

' Mitchellville to Prairie City Rails-to-Trails Corridor Development, $749,501.

' Turkey River Recreational Corridor - Elgin to Gilbertson Park and the Turkey River, $750,000.