Mayor proposes $2.2 million to U bike trail

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak recently proposed more than $8.5 million to add bike trails in the city and $100,000 annually to ensure the bike trails managed by the city are maintained.

“Without this accelerated program, we would not have had the resources to adequately maintain these paths - an unacceptable situation in the no. 2 bike city in America,” Rybak said to the City Council on August 14.

Ward 2 City Councilman Cam Gordon said the University’s bike trail, which runs over Bridge 9, will receive $2.2 million for repair and expansion.

“This is identified as a great potential trail partly because it connects so well to campus from the northeast,” Gordon said.

The trail has the potential to connect campus from the Bridge 9 bike trail through Dinkytown to downtown near the Guthrie, he said. It could also bring bikers down through old St. Anthony Main to an existing rail corridor.

“This is the first time ever we have had money dedicated from the city’s general fund to maintain the bike trails,” Gordon said.

However, students won’t know until this winter whether or not the proposed trail will take shape.

“We go through a process until the end of December when we approve it,” Gordon said.