Paved link to connect existing walking trails

TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
The Spoofhound Trail, a 300-yard link between two existing paved pedestrian paths running along South Munn Avenue and behind Maryville High School is scheduled for completion this summer. When the trail is in place, walkers, runners, and bicyclists will have access to a combined off-street exercise corridor more than 1.5 miles long.

Folks who enjoy walking, running, and bicycling along Maryville’s growing network of paved pedestrian paths will find it a little easier to reach their step and mileage goals late this summer following completion of the Spoofhound Trail.

The new east-west trail adjoining the Maryville High School campus will only be about 300 yards long, but it will connect a popular existing trail running north and south along South Munn Avenue with a third path that meanders from behind the north end zone of the MHS football field to St. Francis Hospital.

City Manager Greg McDanel said the Missouri Department of Transportation has granted authority for the city to work with the Maryville R-II School District in finalizing documents creating rights-of-way and easements needed for construction to proceed, probably in June and July.

The 8-foot-wide trail will pass just to the north of the high school and, by linking the two existing paths, create an uninterrupted off-street walking/biking corridor just over 1.5 miles long.

Cost of the project is estimated at about $163,000, 80 percent of which will be paid by MoDOT through the federal Transportation Alternative Program.

Known as TAP, the initiative combines four earlier pedestrian corridor programs — Transportation Enhancements, Recreational Trails, Safe Routes to School, and Scenic Byways — into a single funding source derived from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

A contractor for the Spoofhound Trail project has yet to be named.