Boards plug away at securing railway spur over Minnesota River for bike trail

A six-mile railway spur across the Minnesota River could be a splendid missing link for bikers -- but is taking years to nail down

By DAVID PETERSON, Star Tribune

Last update: May 29, 2009 - 12:44 AM

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Scott and Carver counties are trying to finagle a deal to acquire an important and exceptionally scenic link in the metro area's system of bike trails for "virtually nothing."

But officials are warning that the price of failure could be to lose it altogether.

Members of both county boards sat down this week -- one of them behind closed doors -- to review the status of negotiations with the Union Pacific railway over a 6-mile stretch of abandoned track that both crosses and parallels the Minnesota River between Shakopee and Chaska.

A number of trail-loving planners see the corridor as eventually becoming part of a giant river loop that would have at its other end a renovated bike trail across the old Cedar Avenue bridge between Bloomington and Dakota County.

With the prospect of aid from various outside sources, including revenue from its use as a corridor for a major sewer pipe, the cost to the locals around it "could be virtually nothing," interim administrator Gary Shelton told the Scott County board.

But if negotiations fail, the land could revert to nearby landowners, making it much more difficult to ever reassemble for eventual use for commuter rail or as a busway.

And Union Pacific is "getting anxious to move forward" on a process that has been grinding along for years, the county's parks and trails manager, Mark Themig, warned.

The abandoned corridor stretches from roughly the Renaissance Festival site in Scott County through the city of Carver and into Chaska. The railway succeeded in getting federal permission to abandon it after a 2007 derailment and bridge collapse created more costs than it was yielding in profits. By the end it was serving just one customer.

An initial attempt to get the railway to simply donate the land has failed, board members learned. On the contrary, Union Pacific placed its value at $3 million.

Public officials countered with a Metropolitan Council appraisal of $1.4 million, and the railway has come down to $1.7 million, Themig said.

Both county boards have given their staffs permission to present a new offer, Themig said Thursday.

One important problem that needs working out is the million-dollar cost of removing a decrepit bridge. The public agencies maintain that removal is solely the responsibility of the railway as part of its abandonment of the little spur line. The counties are asking the railroad to take a number of other steps, as well, to erase its presence from the area.

The counties are hoping short-term costs can be held to a minimum by placing as a condition on the sale the admission of the spur line into the formal regional trails plan and the promise of Met Council assistance in acquiring it.

But they are stressing that there's a huge price tag down the line -- more than $3 million -- to make the corridor usable by the public. The track crosses the river more than once, and that creates eye-popping costs.

As Scott commissioner Jerry Hennen said, reviewing the list of those costs, "Two million dollars? For a 10-foot-wide bridge?"

Although much of that cost, too, could be covered by grants, the difficulty in finding that kind of money means it could be a long time before it's used.

"It could be decades," Themig said. "At least."

David Peterson • 952-882-9023

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