Plans are under way to put more miles of bikeways along Lake Michigan's shoreline, reports the Allegan County News.
Already, the paths are in place to take bikers from South Haven to Saugatuck. With the bike routes proposed, bikers, hikers, runners and rollerbladers will be able to trek from Saugatuck city limits more than 37 miles northward on paved trails -- and plans are under way for a southern option.
Excerpt:
A Saugatuck-South Haven Bike Trail Committee is studying right-of-ways, routes and funding for a 23-mile trail from where the current path ends to downtown South Haven, Southwest Michigan Planning Commission program assistant Suzann Flowers said.
"This, in turn, is part of an AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) long-range plan for a nationwide set of corridors to be developed as U.S. bike routes," Flowers added.
"One of these is U.S. Bicycle Route 35, a 50-mile band which would follow the shore of Lake Michigan from New Buffalo to the Mackinac Bridge, then north to Sault Ste. Marie," she said.
The story goes on to say the Van Buren County portion of the path, consisting of one mile in the City of South Haven and 2.36 miles in South Haven Township, would involve a 4-foot-wide bike lane extension of the existing Blue Star Highway, costing $15,000 to $20,000 per mile to construct.
Blue Star's extra-wide Allegan County right-of-ways make possible a 10-foot path separate from the roadway, costing $150,000 to $300,000 per mile depending on the need to acquire land, price of asphalt, tree removal, engineering and more factors.
Funding sources still are being worked out, but federal transportaion dollars through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program and Michigan Department of Transportation are among those being pursued.
For more on the proposals,
read the rest of the story.Source: Allegan County News
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