Riverfront trail blazes across Arsenal Island

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By The Quad-City Times | Thursday, July 24, 2008 |

The Quad-Cities’ riveting story of riverfront trail development nears the end of another significant chapter. Work under way now will complete the Arsenal Island connection linking the Illinois and Iowa riverfront trails into a seamless, safe all-Quad-City network.

By the end of August, a new 10-foot wide lighted asphalt path will replace the narrow sidewalk on the western edge of the island. That old sidewalk could accommodate walkers, runners or cyclists, but not very many and not at the same time. This new trail meets proven safety standards and will make walkers, runners and cyclists feel like welcome neighbors, not tolerated intruders passing through.

When completed, the $300,000 path will link Rock Island and Davenport’s downtowns and riverfront attractions. This dream pitched long ago by the late Bistate Regional Commission director Gary Vallem was intended for recreational and fitness purposes. Today, in this era of $4 gas, Vallem’s foresight also creates opportunities for bicycling commuters.

We love this project as another example of many Quad-City governments doing together what none could do alone. Both Davenport and Rock Island had perfectly fine riverfront trail systems. Each could easily have stopped at the border. Rock Island Arsenal, with its very real security concerns, didn’t have to allow this. Not only do Arsenal leaders support it, they’re using federal funds to pay for half of it.

Along with the new trail comes a public viewing and

picnic area next to the bridge foreman’s cottage. Both will be shielded by a new, short safety wall that keeps vehicle traffic out without impairing the river view.

The old steel pipe fence that lined the sidewalk is being repaired and painted. The street lights are being moved to the east side of roadway to make space for the new, wider path that will join directly with the steel trail bridge opened over the Sylvan Slough in August 2005.

The foresight of Vallem, RiverAction and all the trail partners will continue to benefit our community for decades. Thanks to them, the Quad-Cities is blessed with an absolutely unique stateline trail system offering hours of recreation on both sides of our nation’s most famous river.