Riverside trail cost soars near $4M
MUNCIE — Maybe it’s time for opponents of the Riverside Avenue trail to take down the few remaining “Stop-the-Trail” signs.
If they still want to keep their yard signs, perhaps a more applicable message would be, “We Won.”
The trail wasn’t halted, but thanks to the opposition’s concerns, the cost of the project is now nearing $4 million, or nearly five times the trail’s price tag when its construction was first announced in May of 2019 by Gov. Eric Holcomb.
In addition to the trail, the project now includes improvements to Riverside, currently hazardous because of rough pavement and potholes; a road diet; realignment of the intersection of Riverside and Jackson Street; extensive storm-drain improvements; a new sidewalk to connect the Catalina Swim Club to the Riverside trail; new trees along the corridor; and expensive new water lines.
The 1.4-mile trail will run between the roundabout at Jackson Street/Morrison Road and Christy Woods on the edge of Ball State University’s campus.
The latest big cost increase and holdup in completion of the trail involves water lines.
“This project is a water main relocation where our existing main was in conflict with the city's project,” Joe Loughmiller of Indiana American Water told me. “As part of the trail project, there appears to be new (storm) sewer and sub-grade treatment, resulting in conflicts in a number of locations.
"The water main relocation is approximately 4,000 linear feet, and we have contracted with Miller Pipeline to complete the work. Water main work is anticipated to be completed by this summer and the total project cost is around $950,000.”
Other costs:
Riverside-Jackson intersection reconstruction: $349,112.
Riverside road and storm sewer improvements: $1.248 million.
Trail: $1.271 million.
Those three construction projects, including design, engineering, oversight and other support, total $2.869 million in expenses. Adding in the water-line improvements brings the total to more than $3.8 million, and that apparently excludes other utility relocations. Ball Brothers Foundation has chipped in another $25,000 to plant new trees to address complaints about the loss of trees to the project.
In a recent press release, Elizabeth Rowray, president of Delaware Advancement Corp. (DAC), alluded to past neighborhood anxiety when she was quoted as saying:
“After careful planning, based primarily on the public input meetings in 2019, a broad community partnership was formed to address stormwater issues, automobile travel speeds and traffic back-ups — all concerns of the public— that will further enhance the pedestrian trail being built along Riverside Avenue.”
She went on: “This is Muncie at its best. We are making quality of place improvements in an area of town where owner-occupied housing demand is high, an area lacking in safe pedestrian travel routes. We are closing gaps in Muncie’s incredible existing trail network. We are using limited local tax dollars to leverage state and federal financial resources. All of this is in response to public input gathered at the onset of the trail project.”
The initial opposition to the trail came mostly from a vocal minority living on the route. Their concerns included having the trail cross their driveways, and losing some of their front yards.
In reality, nearly all of the trail is being built on city right of way, and the last time I checked, about a fourth of the 40 or so yards being encroached on are actually side yards.
Another issue was that the decision to construct the trail was announced before any meetings were held with the neighborhood. As a result, the vocal minority tried to stop the project.
Trail proponents cite safety for walkers, runners, bicyclists, strollers, dog walkers and others who now must use the street due to lack of sidewalks or a trail.
The trail is being built in two phases. The first, from Brentwood Lane to Tillotson Avenue, started recently and will take 45 days to build. Phase two, from Brentwood to the Morrison Road trail, will begin after the water company has finished its project (expected by the end of July). Contracts call for substantial completion of the trail by Sept. 30.
A unique feature of this project is a road diet at the Jackson/Riverside intersection.
Riverside/Jackson will be reconfigured from its current diagonal intersection to a more perpendicular junction.
Upon completion, all traffic will stop at the intersection except for eastbound thru vehicles on Jackson. As a result, the intersection will no longer be used like an off ramp by eastbound Jackson motorists turning left onto Riverside at speeds of 40 mph or so.
The road diet will reduce Riverside east of Jackson from four lanes to two.
The impressive list of partners on the project includes DAC; the Indiana Department of Natural Resources; Mayor Dan Ridenour’s office; the governor’s office; Next Muncie; the Muncie Sanitary District; the Indiana Economic Development Corp.; the East Central Indiana Regional Development Authority; the Indiana Department of Transportation; Ball Brothers; the city-county plan commission; and The American Rescue Plan, aka the COVID-19 Stimulus Package or American Rescue Plan, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden.
The Next Muncie group, whose leaders include Ball Memorial Hospital President Jeffrey C. Bird and Ball State President Geoffrey S. Mearns, has expressed the need city-wide to make quality of place improvements in education, green space, housing and cultural events to retain and attract residents and employees.
The Riverside trail brings pedestrian connectivity to and from predominantly single-family, owner-occupied neighborhoods immediately adjacent to Muncie’s two largest employers, BSU and BMH, the group has said.
City-county plan commission director Marta Moody and other officials have cited studies, master plans and action plans going back two decades that documented "long and widespread" public support for trails in Muncie, including connectivity between trails and the lack of trails/parks/green space in the area of West Riverside.
Riverside trail construction contracts were awarded to E&B Paving, 3D Construction and DC Construction Services. FlatLand Resources and IXOYE engineering were awarded project management and design contracts.
Previously, in Greater Muncie: