A multi-use trail project along more than three blocks of Midland Railway tracks will soon be moving forward in Baldwin City, and city officials will also be seeking $20 million in grants for a project that would link the city with a 51-mile trail that connects Ottawa and Iola.

On Friday, Baldwin City Administrator Glenn Rodden said the Kansas Department of Transportation would soon be starting the bidding process for construction of a concrete multi-use trail on the east side of the Midland tracks. The trail will be 8 feet wide and will run from the existing multi-use trail on Elm Street to the old Santa Fe Depot just south of High Street.

KDOT approved the city’s grant application for the trail two years ago. The bidding process will take place in the summer or early fall, Rodden said, and KDOT will then decide whether the trail will be constructed this year or in the spring of 2023.

The project is expected to cost $1 million, with KDOT picking up 80% of that cost and the city paying for the remainder. The city will also pay for project engineering and utility relocation, which will bring the city’s total costs to about $260,000, Rodden said.

Typically, the city would also be responsible for the project’s easement acquisition, but in 2018 the city purchased a 15-foot-wide trail easement along the entire route of the Midland tracks in Baldwin City and south to the line’s terminus near Ottawa. In response to a request from the Midland Railway board of directors, Baldwin City, Douglas County and various economic development interests bought the right of way for $345,000 so that Midland could make repairs to tracks that were damaged by a flash flood in August 2018. Baldwin City provided $172,000 for the right-of-way purchase, and Douglas County provided $94,000.

Rodden said the city hopes to use more of that right of way for another trail project. He said the city has made two grant applications, one on the state level and the other through a federal program, that if approved would provide $20 million to complete the trail along the entire length of the Midland tracks, or about 12 miles. The proposed trail would link to the Prairie Spirit Trail State Park, a 51-mile trail that connects Ottawa to Iola on the former route of the defunct Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad, from which the Midland tracks also originate.

Although the city applied for both the state and federal grants, it would only be able to participate in one, Rodden said.

“If we were approved for one, we would withdraw our application for the other,” he said. “A grant would provide enough to put in the bridges and everything needed for the trail. It’s a lot of money, but we’ve found in the past they are looking for big projects.”

In light of state and federal initiatives to enhance rural broadband access, the city’s grant applications also call for the installation of a fiber optic line from Baldwin City to Ottawa, Rodden said.

Baldwin City Mayor Casey Simoneau said the state would announce its grant awards later this month, Neither Simoneau nor Rodden knew when federal officials would announce grant awards.

“I think Baldwin City has a good chance to receive one of the grants,” Simoneau said. “We’ve done a lot of groundwork with the easement acquisition and the preliminary engineering on the trail we had done a couple of years ago. I think it would be a big thing for the community with tens of thousands of bicyclists from Kansas City and Lawrence hopping on the expanded trail.”