As promised, 10 Speed did a little recon Saturday on the refurbished and reopened (for bikes and pedestrians!) McKinley Bridge  just north of downtown.

First impression:

Awesome!

Of course, work remains to be done on the $45-million project. Connectors to the Riverfront Trail in Missouri and to the Madison County Transit’s Confluence Trail are lacking.

On the Missouri side, it’s about a 1/10th of a mile walk on old railroad right of way from Branch Street to the dedicated bike lane.

On the Illinois side, the dedicated bike/pedestrian lane needs some finishing touches; right now it ends on the bridge deck.  Plus,  there’s a 3-mile ride on the shoulder of the multi-lane Illinois Route 3 north from the bridge to the Confluence Trail trailhead at the intersection of Route 3 and 20th Street.

Neither  of these issues present much of a problem now, with no vehicular traffic on the bridge. Cyclists and walkers can use the traffic lanes on the Illinois side, and Route 3 doesn’t have much traffic. In addition, the shoulder on Route 3  is nice and wide, though a little choppy just outside of Venice.

The payoff, of course, is the view of downtown from the bridge deck.  

 And there’s a cool sculpture in the new park on the Illinois side.

Plans call for an asphalt trail to be constructed on the Illinois side. The trail will exit the bridge,  double back and travel under the bridge to the levee and travel along the levee to connect with the Confluence Trail. On the Missouri side, one-tenth of a mile of asphalt is all that’s needed to connect the Riverfront Trail to the bridge.

When this work is done, it will be possible to start a bike ride at the Landing and ride a circuit that goes north and crosses both the McKinley Bridge and the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, with only about a mile or two of riding on roads with traffic.  The P-D Cycling team can’t — well, won’t — wait that long, so we’ll deal with the minor inconveniences and ride a for a 25-26-mile circuit Sunday using the McKinley and Old Chain of Rocks bridges.

–30–