The River Road Trail, located along the eastern edge of Riverview Park, will be growing on its southern end by 1,000 feet. Chris Atkinson, director of the Hannibal Parks & Recreation Department, is pleased to be adding another segment to the city’s trail system.
“It doesn’t really provide any extra connectivity, but it gives us an additional 1,000 feet and takes us closer to the final goal of having a really nice, safe connected trail system around the city,” said Atkinson.
Is there a chance the trail will be extended further south in the future?
“The ultimate goal would be to connect somehow to River Road on the other side of the (Burlington Northern Railroad) tracks. That’s our goal as far as our master plan,” said Atkinson.
At this point, no firm plans are in place to achieve that goal.
“It’s going to take probably a bridge to go across the railway track, or some way to get up and above where the railway tracks are,” said Atkinson. “We would love to have that connection so you can just come down the trail and go all the way along the trail to the Mississippi, but we understand that it’s difficult and will probably be an expensive project to do that.”
Another potential trail connection from Riverview Park to the downtown area will be in the works next spring.
“That provides us another connection without going across the tracks,” said Atkinson.
If the River Road Trail is ever extended to the railroad tracks leading onto the Wabash Bridge, Atkinson says some significant issues will have to be overcome since the trail narrows noticeably.
“If you go past the 1,000 feet where we’re going to end the addition to the trail, that’s where you get into the real problems as far as only having three or four feet of clearance between the rock wall and the end of where River Road used to be,” he said.
