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Old Posted Sep 5, 2007, 4:05 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Detroit
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Looks like the long delayed Dequindre Cut project is about to get underway

Path to join RiverWalk, Eastern Market in Detroit

Trenton firm is hired to build trail
September 5, 2007

BY JOHN GALLAGHER

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

More than five years in the planning, downtown's Dequindre Cut rails-to-trails project should get under way soon.

Detroit's Economic Development Corp., a quasi-public arm of the city, voted Tuesday to hire a contractor, ABC Paving Co. of Trenton, to build the trail.


The bike and pedestrian trail, slightly more than a mile long, will connect Eastern Market with the new RiverWalk.
Michael Dempsey, project manager for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said construction should begin in about one month and should be completed May 31. The contract is worth about $2.8 million, to be paid for with grants from the State of Michigan and the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

Long planned but delayed by a variety of obstacles, the pathway is the latest in a series of projects in and around downtown designed to enhance the quality of life.

With the RiverWalk about half complete, the city says it hopes eventually to connect that waterfront promenade to a regional network of pedestrian and bicycle trails through the Dequindre Cut, a former railroad line.

Specific tasks for the contractor will include removing five unused bridges that run over the trail, cutting weeds, installing lighting and security measures and paving the pathway with asphalt.

When finished, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, which operates the RiverWalk, also will maintain the Dequindre Cut.

The city still must design a way to connect the new pathway to both Eastern Market and the RiverWalk. On the north end, the trail will stop at the south side of Gratiot. Dempsey said planners are studying how to continue the path north across Gratiot into Eastern Market.

On the south end, the pathway will stop at Woodbridge, a couple of blocks from the RiverWalk. Planners have to design a way to continue the path through the planned State of Michigan Tricentennial Park to the RiverWalk.

Eventually, the city says it plans to extend the trail north into the Midtown and Wayne State University districts to connect with other pathways.

In another action Tuesday, the Economic Development Corp. voted to approve a $4.8-million contract to build the tented roof structure that will rise over the new Rosa Parks Transit Center, now under construction near Michigan and Cass.

The transit center will serve as the new downtown terminal for local buses. City planners say they hope to convince federal transportation officials to pay for a light-rail system that would connect Ann Arbor with downtown Detroit, terminating at the Rosa Parks center.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...SS04/709050415
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