Trek on 1/29/2012 12:09:41 PM:
Progress on the Rock Island Trail State Park was recently mentioned on MO Bike Federations website. There is a link there to a January 13, 2012 article in the Kansas City Star.
The trail is now going to be built on the railbed after federal approval. That approval is expected to take about a year. The original plan was to build along side the railbed.
From that article: "The project will be constructed in nine phases, with completion estimated originally to take about three years."