Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
MATT LOEFFLER, of Ruotsala Construction, Ironwood, carries a wooden beam while working on a bridge along the Western Gateway Trail Wednesday under rainy conditions.
By RALPH ANSAMI
Ironwood - City Commissioner Jim Mildren is impressed with the new stretch of the Iron Belle Trail from Ironwood to Bessemer.
City commissioners learned Monday the non-motorized trail construction is nearly finished. The trail will tentatively be dedicated at an Oct. 24 ceremony at the Bessemer end.
The Ironwood stretch of the hiking-biking trail has been in use for more than a year and a Friends of the Iron Belle Trail group has organized. It will hold a clean-up day Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, originating at Depot Park.
City Manager Scott Erickson said invasive plant species along the trail will be targeted for eradication in some areas.
The clean-up effort will be followed by a cook-out.
A previous trail clean-up in Ironwood brought out from 75 to 100 people.
Mildren said the amount of fill that had to be hauled in for some sections of the Bessemer area trail was impressive. He said the trail will be a big tourist draw and a major part of Ironwood's economic development efforts.
Bridge work was continuing on the project Wednesday in the Bessemer area among periods of pouring rain.
Coleman Engineering has spearheaded the project and this summer's construction has been done by Ruotsala Construction, of Ironwood Township.
Ross Peterson Construction, of Hurley, handled the Ironwood portion of the trail.
Earlier this month, the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners supported a gift of land for the Ironwood-Bessemer trail from the Keweenaw Land Association. The company donated 380 feet of former railroad grade to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
In a letter to the county board, Ronald Olson, chief of MDNR's Parks and Recreation Division, said the gift of land "will make the trail whole."
The trail corridor is owned by the DNR to the west and east of the property that's being donated. The property was not transferred with other parcels in 2012 because oil storage tanks existed on the site. They were removed in 2013.
The Western Upper Peninsula Trail Authority, through the Gogebic County Road Commission, he's been the funding agency for the trail development from Ironwood to Bessemer.
The original cost of the Western Gateway Trail was pegged at $1,830,000, funded by more than $1.5 million from the state and $268,000 in donations from the Western Upper Peninsula Convention and Visitors Bureau over five years.
The trail runs along the former Soo Line Railroad grade.
The third phase of the project will continue from Bessemer to Ramsay, then on to Sunday Lake in Wakefield.
The local trail authority was formed in 2013 to help establish and maintain this end of the statewide Iron Belle Trail, from Ironwood to Detroit.
