Montrose, CO – The public is invited to offer input on final designs for expanding the city's recreation trail system during an open house scheduled for July 18.

In October of 2017, the City of Montrose, in cooperation with the Montrose Recreation District, MRD, and other community partners, was awarded a two-million-dollar grant from Great Outdoors Colorado, GOCO, to help with design and construction of the “Connecting the People to their Parks and Rec” project.

The goal of the project is to construct approximately 2.25 miles of hard-surfaced recreation trails crossing Townsend Avenue and Main Street by way of new underpass crossways. Upon completion, the city’s recreation trail system will be almost entirely separated from vehicular traffic and continuous north-to-south between the Colorado Outdoors project area and the Community Recreation Center. The trail is scheduled to be opened to the public in early 2020.

The northern reach of the trail will parallel the Uncompahgre River along its entire length.  This stretch of the river is currently being acquired by the city and will eventually be opened to the public for recreation, boating, and fishing. A riverbank stabilization and fish-habitat-improvement project for this stretch of the river is also currently being designed.  Once complete, this will add even more recreational opportunities to the area.  

Since being awarded the grant, the City and MRD have been working on the design and permitting of the project. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2019. As part of this process, the design team would like to showcase their work and record input from the public to be used in the final design.

The trail is currently being designed by Del-Mont Consultants in collaboration with Loris and Associates of Superior, CO. The design process will extend through the end of 2018.

The public is invited to the open house on July 18, 2018, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the City Council Chambers located at 107 South Cascade Ave. in Montrose. Members from the design team will be present to highlight the current plans and solicit feedback in a one-on-one setting. Light refreshments will be served.    

Any questions regarding the project may be directed to City Engineer Scott Murphy at 970.901.1792.

For more City news visit: CityOfMontrose.org.

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