More Cemar Trail Progress!

 

As exciting as Promontory Point must have been,
the Cemar Trails joins existing trail near 29th St and B Ave NE

The Cemar Trail, which will eventually be a seven-mile direct route from the center of Cedar Rapids to the center of Marion, has made an important connection to the broader trail system in town. The trail under the bridge at 1st Avenue East has been completed...

Note also connections to wide sidewalks on
both sides of 1st Avenue

...and joins a completed spur by Arthur School. 

Crossing 29th Street by A Avenue

The previously constructed portion of the trail runs along an old railroad right of way to 16th Street; from there it's not terribly difficult to connect to the Cedar River Trail by Cedar Lake. (See Linn County Trails Association map here.) For the record, there are a couple of awkward junctures on the way: 

• at the edge of Daniels Park, where H Avenue meets Oakland Road, the trail rather dumps you into traffic, but it looks like crossing at the sidewalk might be an alternative
• from there it's bike lane to Cedar Lake, which can involve some negotiation with traffic entering and exiting I-380 (my solution, to take the interstate down, might be too radical for some)

From there you can go a long, long way, to Elk Run Heights near Waterloo to the north, and to Solon to the south. Eventually you can go ever farther; it's part of the Great American Trail project.

Meanwhile, in the direction of Marion the Cemar Trail still stops at 3rd Avenue and 33rd Street SE, adjacent to Mount Cavalry Cemetery. 

Marion's completed its portion as far south as Highway 100, so there's just 1.3 miles to be built, with completion expected in fall 2025 (Warner 2022). Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds just announced a Destination Iowa award of $3 million to Marion towards completion of the trail as well as a plaza planned for Uptown. (The Destination Iowa program is funded by federal COVID relief funds; such is the condition of American government in 2022.) The City of Marion recently announced trail construction “will begin after easements have been obtained and construction of a sanitary sewer trunk line is complete.” 

I wonder if this modest apartment building...

293 34th St Dr SE

...can then publicize and monetize its proximity to the trail network!

SEE ALSO: "Cemar Trail Progress!" 21 August 2021

HISTORIC CEMAR TRAIL RIDES!

"Cemar Trail," My Green Misadventure, 9 October 2011

Cindy Hadish, "Reconstructed Railroad Bridge Connects to Past as New Trail Link in Marion," Homegrown Iowan, 12 July 2021

Joe Sheller, "In Which Miles Total 356 for ARTN(a)R," CR Biker, 26 July 2020