With some financial help from Sacramento, Redding will start knitting together its trail system.
Part of a plan aimed at reducing motor vehicle trips, city and state officials recognize that they must offer reasonable alternatives.
That’s pretty much the reasoning behind a nearly $1 million dollar grant to fill a gap in Redding’s growing network of bikeways and walking tracks, officially called multi-use paths.
California’s Natural Resources Agency announced the grants, funded by the state’s carbon Cap and Trade system Tuesday. Redding’s Northeast Crossing Trail was the only North State project to receive funding.
Redding Community Project Manager Travis Menne said the project connects the 299 Trail to the Highland Park and Hilltop areas and the Sacramento River Trail via a connection across Boulder Creek. The just more than half mile connection traverses city and Caltrans property.
Menne said linking the trails will make them more useful to more people. He said calculations suggest that the project will cut by 81,700 the number of miles driven by motor vehicles annually. Plans call for using permeable pavement, allowing rain to seep into the earth and low energy LED lighting.
A future phase II would link to the Churn Creek Greenway.