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New Off-Street Trail Unveiled Linking Clayton to University City
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The Great Rivers Greenway (GRG) fashioned a key piece of the jigsaw puzzle that is the St. Louis regional bike trail network into place on Friday — and it fit perfectly.
The group held a party in Clayton’s Shaw Park to celebrate the opening of the Centennial Greenway Trail, a two-mile asphalt trail that runs from Shaw Park in downtown Clayton to Olive Blvd. The off-street trail runs along a now defunct railroad corridor adjacent to I-170 that is owned by Metro. Metro partnered with the GRG to help turn its vision into a reality.
“I want to thank Metro. This trail simply couldn’t have been possible without Metro’s help and generosity,” said Robert Epstein, President of GRG’s board of directors.
The ribbon-cutting was held on Arbor Day – April 26 – and the GRG dedicated four trees at the trailhead, symbolizing the four municipalities touched by the trail: Clayton, Ladue, University City, and Olivette. The mayors of all four towns spoke at the event along with St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and others.
For cyclists and pedestrians used to coping with the area’s heavy car traffic, the new trail provides a safer link between University City and Clayton. It features easy access points to some of St. Louis County’s most popular neighborhoods, companies, business districts, and parks, including Brown Shoe, Enterprise, the Ladue shopping district, the Downtown Clayton business district, the I-170 Delmar business district, Clayton High School, and the Clayton Community Center. The trailhead in Shaw Park is also a mere half mile from the Clayton MetroLink Station, which cyclists and pedestrians can use to explore the region at large.
The GRG’s 2013 Bike St. Louis map features the impressive greenway network the GRG has been working on since forming in 2000, as well as nearby MetroLink stations, Metro’s transit centers, and a ‘Bikes in Transit’ guide with a tutorial on loading a bike onto a MetroBus bike carrier.
Click here to view more picture.
Upcoming bike-related events:
GRG Social Media Club St. Louis and CityInAJar.com joint Happy Hour to kick off National Bike Month
Wednesday, May 1, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. at the Handle Bar, 4127 Manchester Ave.
Tuesday, May 17, various locations
Citizens for Modern Transit’s Great Race II: Downtown to Clayton
Thursday, May 30, 4:30 p.m., Post Office Plaza located (815 Locust St.) to Fortel’s Pizza Den (7359 Forsyth Blvd.)
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This walkway is par of a major light rail extension along the Inner belt and west along
rr or Page to Westport. This was one of major light rail options proposed in the recent
sales tax approval. Why did metro then give this land for a bike trail? Has Metro given
up on light rail? Will it then lower the sales tax?
I have commented twice but you have not printed my comment
The land given by Metro to byuld the UCity/Clayton greenway was to be part of a
light rail extension from Clayton to Westport Plaza, which would serve a part of
central and north central St Louis Counrt/ That apparently will not be part of a
Metrolink expansion.
This is the second time Metro has backed off of a potential light rail route. The other
was a rail route through South St Louis, which was dropped in favor of a route along
Jefferson avenue
One can oinly conclude that Metro has no intent to build any future light rail extensions
but will rely on so-called Bus Rapid, which is little more than the traditional express
buses
If true, this can be considered to be a serious deviation from the information put
forth duing the sales tax campaign which raqised the sales tax for public transit