The Minnesota House of Representatives bonding bill, unveiled Tuesday, allocated $2 million for the Blazing Star Trail.

The bill doesn’t delineate whether that funding is for the segment the state Department of Natural Resources is working on now — from Myre-Big Island State Park to Hayward — or if it is for the next segment — from Hayward eastward toward Austin. However, the funds likely are meant for the next segment of the trail, said Joel Wagar, trails and waterways supervisor for the region.

He said it is likely the next segment will be from Hayward to a midway point, such as the KOA campground.

The funding comes as part of a $16.2 million package intended for state trails. The Blazing Star Trail funding is the first trail listed in the bill among a dozen trails.

The Blazing Star Trail presently is a 6.4-mile, paved state trail from Frank Hall Park in Albert Lea to a point on the northeast side of Myre-Big Island State Park, about three-quarters of a mile from the western shore of Albert Lea Lake’s northern bay. The trail was built in 2003 after five years of land negotiations.

The DNR hopes to award construction contracts this fall for the bridge over Albert Lea Lake and for the trail asphalt heading to Hayward, Wagar said. He said purchase agreements are in place with landowners. The trail would be about four miles longer. “We’ve been through a lot of hoops on this, a lot of changes,” he said.

Environmental assessments are being completed over the next two months, he said, then DNR engineering staff will finish the plans before accepting construction bids. Work is slated to begin either next winter or next spring.

There is $1.97 million budgeted for the work. Of that, $1.47 million was awarded in the 2005 bonding bill, and an additional $500,000 was allocated in 2011.

The trail will bridge Albert Lea Lake on the south side of a bridge for Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad tracks. Then it will meander the contours of the land to near where the north-south gravel road 800th Avenue becomes an east-west road. The trail will follow the south side of the road until 800th becomes a north-south road again a quarter mile to the east near an ITC Midwest substation. That’s where it is slated to cross the road and go around the south side of the substation.

It then is set to parallel the DM&E tracks on the south side until near Hayward, where it bridges a drainage ditch, then it follows the backyard property lines of the houses along Freeborn County Road 26. It then crosses County 26 and a small field before reaching restrooms, a picnic shelter and a playground on the grounds of the former Hayward school.

Hayward built restrooms in 2003, in anticipation of the trail bringing tourists to town. If there is funding remaining, the DNR intends to end the trail’s 2014 construction work on city-owned land a quarter mile east of Hayward along the DM&E tracks.

A prior route had the bridge over Albert Lea Lake on the north side. However, a donation of land changed the plans for the route, which altered land negotiations, Wagar said. Also, the original pile-driven bridge was going to be 1,900 feet long, the longest in the network of state trails. However, soil tests found that bedrock was deeper than expected — 80 feet down — which would have increased the cost extensively, Wagar said. Getting those tests done, he said, encountered delays. However, when the results were back, DNR officials decided it would scratch the long bridge.

The bridge for the railroad makes use of filled-in land, followed by a short bridge. Wagar said the DNR staff decided it would be less expensive to create land next to the railroad tracks, shortening the trail bridge to 100 feet. They met with Division of Water staff and are getting the permits in place, Wagar said.

The bridge construction company could choose to begin work in the winter, if low water levels aid in getting the work started, he said. Trail work would start in the spring.

 

Blazing Star Trail timeline

1996: Legislature authorizes existence of trail.

1997: City builds first segment of trail, 1.9 miles.

1998: Initial funding for trail’s second segment appropriated.

2003: Second segment of trail completed, 4.5 miles.

2003: Hayward builds restrooms, picnic shelter.

2005: Funding for $1.47 million appropriated for third segment to Hayward.

2010: Funding deadline extended to 2014.

2011: Additional $500,000 added to third-segment funding.

2013: House bill calls for $2 million for fourth segment; approval pending.