M-6 Non-Motorized Trail- Kent Trails to the Paul Henry Trail

[Raildudes dad]

As of today, the base course asphalt is in place from Kent Trails to the 68th/Clyde Park intersection. I'm anticipating the asphalt work will be finished in time for the holiday weekend. Another 3. 5 miles of non-motorized pathway being added to the system . Next week construction starts on the 4.7 mile segment from Division Ave / M-6 to the Paul Henry Trail at the Wing/60th intersection with a connector to Creekside County Park. Design is in progress for the connection between 68th / Clyde Park & Division / M-6.

[Veloise]

As of today, the base course asphalt is in place from Kent Trails to the 68th/Clyde Park intersection. I'm anticipating the asphalt work will be finished in time for the holiday weekend. Another 3. 5 miles of non-motorized pathway being added to the system . Next week construction starts on the 4.7 mile segment from Division Ave / M-6 to the Paul Henry Trail at the Wing/60th intersection with a connector to Creekside County Park. Design is in progress for the connection between 68th / Clyde Park & Division / M-6.

[Raildudes dad]

Sure wish the local mainstream media would pick up on this story. The other night, at the Green GR charette, my small group was pleading for trail connections. They'd never heard of the trails & greenways coalition, were shocked to hear about the Fred Meijer Everything prefix. What's the time table? I assured them it was happening this year.

[GRDadof3]

No press release yet . There's about 2 weeks worth of cleanup, signing and misc. "details" before Phase 1 is complete and ready for "public use". I'm just giving fellow UP'ers the headsup. My daughter (the design engineer) is going to check it on her rollerblades out this morning after her and GRD3 run the Reeds Lake Run . We'll see if she thinks the construction manager is doing a satisfactory job .

[Raildudes dad]

I seem to remember an article in the Press about this maybe a week ago?

Is this it?

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ss....xml&coll=6

[Veloise]

Someone who's a long-time cyclist and member of the Rapid Wheelmen posted this review to the bike club's forum.

...I did ride the M6 path today and found the engineering to be lacking at intersections and in places, design.The trail appears to be at best 8 feet wide and with areas of downhill runs with blind curves at the bottom. One downhill run heading west had a blind curve to the left, and on the right was a dropoff. The narrow width leaves little room for errors. This will mean some serious speed checking rounding that corner as one hopes that no one else is at the bottom around the curve. The roadway intersection at Byron Center Road places the path entry at the top of an exit ramp from the freeway, where right-turning motorists are pulling out to look south (their left) before turning right (north). There is definitely conflict there.

...While I believe there are some benefits to trailways such as this one, the engineering failures scare me. There is also general public perception that this kind of facility as actually "safe"! Sometimes I feel like I'm whistling in the wind. Any ideas for getting the message through so many thick skulls? ...

[Raildudes dad]

Someone who's a long-time cyclist and member of the Rapid Wheelmen posted this review to the bike club's forum.

...I did ride the M6 path today and found the engineering to be lacking at intersections and in places, design.The trail appears to be at best 8 feet wide and with areas of downhill runs with blind curves at the bottom. One downhill run heading west had a blind curve to the left, and on the right was a dropoff. The narrow width leaves little room for errors. This will mean some serious speed checking rounding that corner as one hopes that no one else is at the bottom around the curve. The roadway intersection at Byron Center Road places the path entry at the top of an exit ramp from the freeway, where right-turning motorists are pulling out to look south (their left) before turning right (north). There is definitely conflict there.

...While I believe there are some benefits to trailways such as this one, the engineering failures scare me. There is also general public perception that this kind of facility as actually "safe"! Sometimes I feel like I'm whistling in the wind. Any ideas for getting the message through so many thick skulls? ...

[Veloise]

I don't want to argue with the person but it'a a minimum of 10 feet wide. He hasn't ridden some of the ones in Grand Rapids and Ada Twps built w/o federal enhancment monies. They are 8 feet wide. This trail was designed using AASHTO design guidelines for non-motorized facilities. Making the turns from Burlingame onto the M-6 ROW are "blind" due to trees and brush on private property and limited right of way but it's very apparent a long ways away that you have to turn. There are no dropoffs that do not have a protective fence. The Byron Center crossing has new ped signals for the trail. If this long time cyclist wants fast and flat, this trail probably isn't for him, I'd suggest the Muscatawa.

[Raildudes dad]

Bump to the top

If all goes well, the final cleanup will be complete tomorrow. Still need to stripe the parking lot at Burlingame and a few signs. The contractor has been trying to work from 7 - 7 to get it done but says there are so many walkers & cyclists after 6pm, they quit at 6.

Look for culverts being installed next week on the north side of M-6 from Wing & 60th to Kalamazoo Ave. I'm still getting paid to play in the dirt

[Rizzo]

May I ask what is the width of the right of way not the path?

[fotoman311]

Bump to the top

If all goes well, the final cleanup will be complete tomorrow. Still need to stripe the parking lot at Burlingame and a few signs. The contractor has been trying to work from 7 - 7 to get it done but says there are so many walkers & cyclists after 6pm, they quit at 6.

Look for culverts being installed next week on the north side of M-6 from Wing & 60th to Kalamazoo Ave. I'm still getting paid to play in the dirt

[Raildudes dad]

I looked for signs at the crossing for Byron Center. The one that Veloise's friend mentioned that's right next to the offramp of M-6. I didn't see any signs going southbound, and I turned around after I passed and looked for northbound signs and didn't see any. Did I just miss them? Seems like there need to be some pretty huge signs here, since the road is 5 lanes wide, it has pretty heavy traffic, and speed limit is pretty high (seems like 40 or 45?). A crossing like this pretty much rules the trail out for families with young kids, or at least makes it much more difficult for them to travel the trail safely. Granted, the highest use times for the trail probably won't be during rush hour. I guess you do what you have to with the limited monies that we choose to invest in alternative forms of transportation. Wish they could have worked out something better.

Hopefully I can ride this trail soon, perhaps with my puppies in tow in the new (to me) Burley trailer I picked up in Dorr tonight. Thanks Craigslist!

[MuskeMI]

Sooooo....the wife and I are trying to get into biking this year (primarily for the exercise). I know late last fall some of the Paul Henry was paved down by us (Caledonia area, from Main St back to the School and possibly beyond). Can somebody point me to a website that shows where the Paul Harvey goes? Information on the WWW is pretty sparse. What is allegedly the "official" website of the Paul Henry Trail (thornappletrail.com) hasn't been working all week. A map on bikely.com seems out of date.

[fotoman311]

Sooooo....the wife and I are trying to get into biking this year (primarily for the exercise). I know late last fall some of the Paul Henry was paved down by us (Caledonia area, from Main St back to the School and possibly beyond). Can somebody point me to a website that shows where the Paul Harvey goes? Information on the WWW is pretty sparse. What is allegedly the "official" website of the Paul Henry Trail (thornappletrail.com) hasn't been working all week. A map on bikely.com seems out of date.

[TheCityGuy]

The Paul Henry is paved from Caledonia northwest to 76th Street in Gaines. There is currently no connection from that point to 60th Street. The County is still working on it.