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West Memphis gets $1.5 million for Delta River Regional Park

West Memphis gets $1.5 million for Delta River Regional Park

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West Memphis gets $1.5 million for Delta River Regional Park

Development will be part of Big River Crossing

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The City of West Memphis awarded a $1.5 million bid to develop the trail through the Delta River Regional Park in the city. From the end of the Big River Crossing descending to the Harahan Bridge landing, the trail travels north under the Hernando DeSoto Bridge using Dacus Lake Road and Robinson Road. Before getting to the Lake the bike/ped path circles to the east traveling along the river edge and looping back. The circuit runs nearly six miles.

An already completed spur to a parking area for trail users travels west along Broadway and ends across from Poncho’s Restaurant on the southeast corner at South Loop. There is a small paved parking area there marked as the Big River Trail head, originally called the Main to Main trail.

City Planner Paul Luker handled the bid opening and reported it while outlining project details to City Council during the first September meeting. New surfacing for the roads and path pave the route on the river side of the levee through what once was called the Eco-Park.

“There is a lot of this on county road right-of-way,” said Luker. “We will resurface the county roads with re-purposed asphalt. The trail where we have been granted easements by property owners will be about 10 feet wide and also done in the re-purposed asphalt as well. It will be pretty smooth.”

As the Big River Crossing is slated for a grand opening on Saturday, Oct. 22, Luker looked ahead.

“We need to get some people out here experiencing the area, using it and becoming advocates for taking this to another level, to make it work like we are dreaming,” said Luker. “Making a trail gives people a reason to come over here, experienc- ing the river rolling by and seeing the downtown Memphis skyline. This is the first step. It will take a lot of money to do that, make a big attraction.”

With bids in hand to develop the trail, Luker represented funding for trail plan to City Council. Highway funding for the project came through the West Memphis Metropolitan Planning organization’s Congestion Mitigation Air Quality program. The simplified logic for the program goes like this: Since hikers and bikers aren’t in vehicles, air quality improves per mile traveled. The air quality improvement justifies the bicycle and pedestrian path. “We received a million dollars of that from CMAQ funding,” said Luker. “We received another grant form the Highway Department — the Recreational Trail Program. That was $200,000. The City Advertising and Promotion Commission provided the share to match the 80/20 CMAQ. And we have private donor matching the recreational trail grant. All in all, this funds the 1.5 million dollars it will take to do this.

“This will be the start of the idea of the Delta River Regional

Park.”

Mayor Bill Johnson provided assurance to city council before they received the bid and handed it over to Luker to proceed.

“All the funds for this project are in place,” said Johnson.

Construction should come quickly once it starts and weather permitting according to Luker.

“It’s a hundred day contract,” said Luker. “We are getting to the time of year where it won’t be a hundred straight days. We hope to get them out there in the next 45 days and go as fast as we can from there.”

By John Rech

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