Gary near Tebbetts from Tebbetts, MO on 12/28/2009 9:14:10 PM:
I went to the public meeting at the North Jefferson site and saw the plans for the bike path. The plans call for a square structure built on the north east side of the bridges consisting of a series of ramps that will bring the path to ground level and then the path will continue on to the boat ramp on the north west side of the bridges and then on to the pavilion on the Katy Trail spur. Each corner of the ramp structure is to have a 15’ x 15’ landing. The people I spoke to at the meeting said the ramp design was developed to 1) cut down on costs – they said running the bike path the full length of the bridge to the first overpass would cost more and 2) slow down bike traffic coming down off the bridge – they felt a straight ramp down from the bridge could result in unsafe high speeds.
Item #2 makes sense to me, but I’m not sure about it costing less in the long run since the ramp structure would be built in an area subject to frequent flooding and I have e-mailed my concerns to MoDOT. But then anything would be better than what is there now.