Nancy Edmonds Hanson

It’s been nearly a decade since Moorhead began to dream about how to incorporate recreation along the river into daily life. Now that dream set forth in the city’s River Corridor Study of 2014 is closer than ever to becoming a reality.

The Moorhead City Council last week approved seeking a grant that would launch a plan to build a bicycle and pedestrian bridge across the river from the Bluestem Center for the Arts, linking the city’s nearly complete trail system along the east side with Fargo’s network of paths on the west. It will be the first south of Interstate 94. Other permanent structures are already installed between Gooseberry Mound and Lindenwood parks and between Memorial Park and Oak Grove parks on the north side. A floating bridge crossing is situated near the Midtown Dam.

The city is seeking $600,000 in federal funding for the new project. The entire project is expected to cost $4.8 million; Moorhead is proposing to share the balance equally with the city of Fargo. Construction of the 800-foot-long, 15-foot-wide bridge, even with a successful application, isn’t expected until the mid-2020s.

Meanwhile, the city planning office has succeeded in securing a Legacy Grant of $661,000 from the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission to complete the 1.28-mile stretch of its riverside pathways known as the Midtown Trail between Woodlawn and Gooseberry parks. When it’s completed in 2022, it will complete 16 miles of surfaced bike and walking trails (some off-road, others using city streets) from Wall Street at the north to Bluestem at the south. That leaves only one segment of the trail proposed in the 2014 River Corridor Study left to be completed – a two-mile segment known as the Harvest Trail from Bluestem to the highway bridge at 60th Avenue South.

In applauding plans for the new Bluestem pedestrian and bike bridge, council member Steve Lindaas pointed to the intention to build it at a level of 37 feet, above the 100-year flood level and able to remain in place year-round.

The River Corridor Study that laid out the dream of a trail system along the river was created in the wake of the major floods of 2009, 2010 and 2011, when a large portion of flood-prone properties along the river were acquired for flood mitigation. Over several years, the study was developed to guide future management of the now-public land along the river, balancing the need for flood mitigation, transportation, recreation and natural resources preservation and restoration. Progress toward meeting those objectives can be found online at cityofmoorhead.com/about-the-city/river-corridor.