CCP 02-11-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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build an 8 or 10 ft. trail to the bridge on the south side. The City of New Brighton currently has an 8 ft. sidewalk in place from Old 8 to the entrance to the Community Center. We could extend this 8 ft. sidewalk all the way to the bridge and have a nice east/west connection on the south side. We believe we can do that relatively inexpensively as a part of the bridge effort. To extend the sidewalk from where it ends now to the bridge, would be more expense because of the terrain. There is a steep drop to the wetland area. We would have to figure out how to accommodate that sidewalk. Once across the bridge, Arden Hills does not have plans to build a sidewalk on the north side. And because of the bus facility, they are not interested in extending that sidewalk, so he is not sure what the long -term feasibility of that sidewalk is (within 20 yr. time frame). Additionally, we know there are bikes on the road. We want to be able to accommodate the on -road bike traffic from east to the west. On the south side there will be an 8 to10 to 12 ft. trail. The funding source for this will be State Aid dollars, which we would be able to use for this. We get about $500,000 per year from the State. As mentioned earlier, we would pay $70,000 per ft. If a 6 ft. lane was added, that would be $420,000. Arden Hills would also match some of that. That means we have less money to do other things in other places, but if it is a priority of the City and Council, we can get that done. We need to decide what is the best way to use this money. Chair Frischman understands being cooperative with Arden Hills on their side of the bridge. One of the challenges that the sub- committee of bikes and trails had was that we have a lot of roads and intersections in New Brighton that are difficult for pedestrians and people on bikes to cross over. If we have this Community Center here and building north of 694 and putting in single family homes and attracting families with kids, wouldn't it be a great idea to make it easier for people to get to and from the Community Center on bikes, rollerblades, strollers and make it accommodating for the new neighborhoods and for people to have access to the Community Center. That is why when we made the formal recommendation, we were trying to be very inclusive of making the access on the north side of the street as opposed to being more dollar- oriented on the south side. The sub - committee talked a lot about the bridge and the Community Center and the homes that will eventually get build up in the Exchange and making sure a trail was accommodating all of those items. That makes it more logical to have it on the north side of the street, but she doubts that Arden Hills would be for something on the north side, because they do not see a need for it. Director of Public Works Wyffels commented that one of the other things that he and Sr. Engineering Supervisor Schlichting are