ST. CHARLES COUNTY — Bikers and hikers get ready: An extra 11 miles of the Katy Trail in St. Charles County should be yours for pedaling and walking, and the state hopes construction will begin this summer.
Gov. Matt Blunt said Wednesday that the state and the local levee district had reached an agreement on completing the section of trail from St. Charles north to Machens.
Blunt said completing the section was a big step toward expanding the trail to Kansas City.
"People come literally from around the world for the Katy Trail," he said. "To extend it across the state would be a significant accomplishment."
For years, the stretch has remained incomplete and closed to the public, largely because floodwater washed out two sections of trail. The section has long been depicted on trail maps as a dotted line, and bicyclists and walkers starting their journeys in St. Charles have had no choice but to head south.
The state has since routed the trail around one washout, but getting around the other washout requires building the trail on the levee. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Consolidated North County Levee District have worked for months on an agreement, which irons out liability, maintenance and some construction details.
The state is now working with an engineering firm, and until it provides a report, it's hard to say when the stretch will open to the public, said DNR spokeswoman Sue Holst. The construction price is also difficult to estimate until officials hear from the engineers, she said.
Under the agreement, DNR will pay the levee district $10,000 a year in return for using the levee easement. The state will manage, maintain and repair the trail. The state is also responsible for any damages the levee district may sustain from the use of the trail.
The Katy Trail currently stretches to Clinton, about 75 miles east of Kansas City. Blunt said the state had asked Ameren Corp. to allow the use of an old Rock Island Railroad bed Ameren owns as part of the Katy Trail. This would extend the trail to Pleasant Hill, a suburb of Kansas City.
DNR asked Ameren to open the railroad bed as part of a settlement agreement for the Taum Sauk reservoir collapse of 2005. But because the attorney general's office has sued Ameren over the reservoir, Blunt said he assumed Ameren wouldn't settle until it had dealt with the lawsuit. A spokeswoman for Ameren wouldn't comment on the trail proposal until the lawsuit was resolved.
In the agreement regarding the St. Charles section, both parties acknowledge the state's desire to continue building the trail from Machens to Confluence Point State Park near West Alton, which would increase the chance the Katy would eventually connect to a trail network in Illinois. For that to happen, the state and levee district would have to work with private landowners and a railroad to gain access.
Rhona and Leo Lococo, who operate the Lococo House bed and breakfast in St. Charles, were pleased with the trail extension news. They offer a trail shuttle service and have hosted bicyclists from all over the country and world.
"The trail is such a unique, wonderful addition to the area and to the state," Rhona Lococo said. "Anything that adds to the state, adds to the area, adds to us."
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