It’s been nearly a decade since freight trains rolled regularly into the old Ford auto manufacturing campus in Highland Park on Canadian Pacific Railway track.

The five-mile railroad spur, which is still owned by Canadian Pacific, could someday draw new interest as either a bicycle and pedestrian corridor or public transit corridor. Without choosing between the two, a new study sets the groundwork for future engineering whenever Canadian Pacific is ready to sell.

“There has not been any significant activity there since the closure of the plant in 2011,” Michael Richardson, a senior city planner with St. Paul Planning and Economic Development, recently told St. Paul City Council members. “We wanted to look at different issues and opportunities for walking and bicycling in the corridor and develop very preliminary designs that would guide future work.”

The 69-page study puts into sharper relief the possibility for car-free travel along the five-mile spur that runs from beneath Cleveland Avenue, at the southeast corner of the old Ford site, and up West Seventh Street to St. Clair Avenue.

Two major planning efforts are likely to increase interest in the Ford spur.

The Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant closed seven years ago, and the Ryan Companies plan to purchase the 122-acre site from Ford in order to develop 3,800 housing units over the next decade or so.

In addition, planning continues for the Riverview Corridor, a proposed streetcar line along West Seventh Street that could potentially utilize the Ford spur. The streetcar would run from downtown St. Paul to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America in Bloomington.

The $200,000 Ford spur study was funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, East Metro Strong, Ford Motor Co. and the city of St. Paul’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

DISCONNECTED NEIGHBORHOODS

The study notes that West Seventh Street, a busy four-lane road, has no bike facilities. The Samuel Morgan Regional Trail runs along the Mississippi River but is separated from the West Seventh neighborhood by the bluffs and Shepard Road.

One set of designs shows pedestrian and bicycle trails side-by-side in the Ford spur, and another shows the trails running alongside public transit. Cost estimates range from $12.4 million to $13.1 million.

The two concepts were prepared recognizing that the right-of-way is still being evaluated for future public transit use by two other studies or planning efforts — one focused on connecting the Ford site to existing public transit and the other focused on the Riverview Corridor.

The Ford spur concepts include separated walking and biking trails, pedestrian and bicycle crossings with safety features, and opportunities for trailheads, public art and new public spaces. Highlighted are 11 “pinch points” where the right-of-way is narrower than 70 feet — a potential complication if bikes and walking paths run alongside transit there.

11 PINCH POINTS, A NEW BRIDGE?

That’s not a problem from the Ford site to Prior Avenue, where ample right-of-way varies from 100 to 140 feet. The spur, however, narrows to 60 feet between the abutments of the Cleveland Avenue bridge — still “adequate” to fit different uses. Installing a public transit station at Cleveland Avenue would pose added challenges given the space constraint, but the study offers some potential engineering approaches.

An existing rail bridge over Interstate 35E is wide enough to accommodate trails, but it would need to be evaluated to see if it’s structurally ready. A transit station could be constructed like a cap over the interstate.

Elsewhere, bridges would have to be widened and trestles rebuilt to accommodate both uses. A new bridge over West Seventh and Alton streets “could be considered to further improve safety and comfort for trail users,” states the study, but it would add $8 million to costs.

The study highlighted Montreal Way as a strong candidate for trailhead seating, informational kiosks and bike racks. It also touched briefly on the possibility of trail connections into Victoria Park.

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St. Paul schools superintendent gets high marks, but board wants progress on equity, enrollment, student achievement The study predicts that trail construction, which would roll out in phases, would not begin for at least another six years. It could be longer depending upon how long it takes to acquire the land and make a political decision on whether to install public transit.

James Schoettler, a resident of the Mac-Groveland neighborhood, asked the council on Wednesday to consider using the Ford site as the major river crossing for the Riverview Corridor, rather than Fort Snelling. He said the council would be otherwise hard-pressed to find trail funding unless transit was developed at the same time.

Taking the opposite tack, the West Seventh/Fort Road Federation voted in April to support “a pedestrian and bike route” without public transit along the corridor.