We are going to resume construction on the Iowa River’s Edge Trail! Hopefully starting this year.
The trail currently ends by the bottom red arrow.
By the 2023 (fair-weather) riding season, we hope the path extends to the top red arrow.
Bridges #2-5 – Fully Funded
This phase of construction is fully funded to our best estimate. In the past years we received state and federal grants, plus many donations from private citizens.
The City of Marshalltown will have a bit letting for the construction of bridges 2-5 mid-Summer 2021. Then we will know the contractor and the cost.
Depending on the contractor construction *could* begin as early as the late Summer. Or it may begin in the Winter. There are a lot of factors, including weather. So only time will tell.
Paving Bike Path from Radio Tower Road to Bridge 5
This phase of the path is not yet fully-funded. But with a little bit of luck–and some fundraising work–we’re confident we’ll have the funds in place when the time comes.
In January 2021, the city received a Federal Recreational Trail (FRT) Grant for $300k! It will be available to our project in the federal fiscal year 2022 (October 1, 2021).
We are applying to additional grant sources, and have a good feeling that they will come through.
We will also need support from donors to complete the bike path.
You may ask, why don’t you pave all the way to the start of bridge #6?!?
We agree that it would seem to be the logical thing to do!
But, there are two things holding us back:
1) Logistically it become difficult to back up concrete trucks that far down a one-way path. But we are investigating our options!
2) Money. Pouring concrete bike path is expensive! We would to need to raise approximately an additional $1,000,000 dollars to pour that section of path. With the way the grant scene looks, we would need to raise this money privately.
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That is our exciting news!
The best thing you can do to help us get this path built faster is donate money to the cause–bike paths cost lots of money!
You could also encourage the county and city to continue to support the construction of the Iowa River’s Edge Trail because it will be an asset to all the communities on and around the trail.