The first step toward Minnesota's newest state trail will begin this month when a contractor pays to remove railroad tracks from the Browns Creek State Trail between Stillwater and the city of Grant.
Crews pulling rails and ties from the route followed by the Minnesota Zephyr dinner train will set in motion a series of changes that will attract an estimated 75,000 walkers, runners and cyclists each year. Paving of the trail will begin next year.
The route belonged to Zephyr owner David Paradeau, who sold it to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for $4.25 million. Washington County contributed $1 million of that amount from voter-approved Land and Water Legacy funds.
"I remain as excited today as I think I was the first day I was approached by Mr. Paradeau," said Kent Skaar, a DNR acquisition and development section leader. "We're going to see some opportunity for public use next year. Right now it's going forward a little slower than we hoped, but it will make a better product in the end."
The track removal comes several months later than DNR estimates, but Skaar said the delay had nothing to do with waiting for the Zephyr to vacate tracks at Stillwater. Instead, he said, the DNR took extra time to figure out how to remove rails and ties, which railroads often do themselves.
"There's value in this deal. The money is in the rails," he said. Tie Yard of Omaha, Inc., a Nebraska company, will remove 12 miles of track -- the 5.9-mile track times two -- as well as plates holding the rails to the ties and 12,000 ties.
In exchange, the DNR will receive $273,000 because the steel can be recycled, Skaar said.
"I've never used the term 'high bidder' before, but that's what this was," he said. "We usually say 'low bid.' It's very unusual for us."