Columbia awarded federal grant to fix trail

COLUMBIA — The city will use a $95,549 grant from the federal Recreational Trails Program to fix one bridge and replace another on the MKT Nature/Fitness Trail.

Columbia Park Services Manager Mike Griggs said on Thursday that the city is fortunate to have received all the money for which it applied. Plans call for replacing timber supports and redecking one bridge between Forum and Scott boulevards and replacing another in the same area with two steel culverts.

The total cost of the dual project is $147,000. The city is matching $51,451 from funds specifically reserved for bridge improvements from the quarter-cent capital improvements sales tax approved by voters in 1999.

Before the work can begin, the City Council must approve the project and officially accept the grant.

A total of 57 applicants were considered for the grants. Gov. Matt Blunt announced Wednesday the distribution of more than $1 million to 16 trail projects.