Although the Capital City State Trail is that - a State Trail, those parts
of it that are not within the city of Madison are maintained by Dane County
Parks - not the DNR.
Dane County Parks has never, to my knowledge, included plowing the trail in
their budget or their maintenance plans. When those parts of the path
outside the City of Madison have been plowed, it has been done on a
volunteer (unpaid basis) by a bicyclist who happens to own a bonded,
licensed, plowing (and paving company).
Several years ago, Dane County Parks had an issue with accepting these
services (even for free) from the aforementioned cyclist (even though he
has been a contractor for Dane County in the past), citing potential
liability issues, questions about whether other user groups (such as XC
skiers) might prefer the path to remain unplowed, etc.
A couple of years ago, the Bike Fed (Dar and I, back when Dar was called
Marjorie) met with the Dane Co Parks director, one of the county parks
planners, and Dana White-Quam of DNR to discuss the issues (including the
inconsistency inherent in concerns over liability if the path were plowed
for the benefit of bicyclists, yet an apparent lack of concern over
liability of XC skiers using the same path (and the same, often steep
grades) ), and also the potential benefit to transportation bicyclists that
maintaining this transportation corridor (built with transportation funds)
would bring. At the end of that meeting, I wasn't really sure what, if
anything, would happen.
To Dane Co Parks credit, what eventually happened is that an agreement was
reached between Dane Co Parks and the volunteer.
The following is a response from Dane Co to a cyclist who wrote to them
earlier this winter to thank them for plowing the path:
"In 2003 a Commercial Operator came forward and volunteered to maintain the
trail at no cost to the State or the County. This partnership venture has
continued up to this point, however, when this volunteer decides that
they[sic] can no longer provide this service, the State and County will
need to reevaluate winter services based on budget considerations.
In the meantime, we're glad to offer the winter service and hope you
continue to use the Capital City State Trail for commuting and pleasure."
I have not needed to use the CCST since the last storm, so I don't know
about the conditions. But I'm guessing that since the City of Madison had
to hire contractors to help city staff clear all the most recent snow, the
Commercial Operator that plows the CCST for free had other paid work
delaying him from getting to the CCST, which is certainly understandable.
It is a shame that maintenance of transportation corridors for
non-motorized users (multi-use paths) do not have the same funding or
priority as the maintenance of transportation facilities that are primarily
for motorized users. I am grateful for the commercial operator's
generosity, but I think a better long-term solution to the perennial
funding problem is for the funds to maintain the CCST in the winter come
out of the Dane County Highways (and Transportation) Department, rather
than the Parks Dept budget (even if it is Parks that ultimately does the
maintenance). This could potentially also eliminate the inequity presented
by Dane Co Parks insistence on requiring a State Trail pass to use those
portions of the transportation facility called the Capital City State Trail
that they maintain. After all, we don't have any toll roads for cars. Why
do we accept them for non motorized users?
Sincerely,
Chuck Strawser
Interim Administrative Director
Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin
At 11:24 AM 2/28/2007, Darin wrote:
Contrary to what is stated below by GHC, nothing is accessible via the
Capital City trail, because it is buried under 2 feet of snow.
Th Wisconsin DNR (who have taken over management of the trail) have a web
page on the conditions of the trail:
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/ORG/LAND/parks/regions/scr/capcity.html
But that page is out of date. I sent email to the manager, Kevin Swenson,
asking when the trail will be plowed.
In any case, the CapCity trail is primarily an East-West route, and is not
convenient for North-South travel.
The only direct North-South route is Fish Hatchery road, which has wide
bike/bus/right-turn-only lanes. Given the aggresive motor vehicle traffic
on FishHatch, cyclists can be forgiven for wanting to avoid this. The
bridge crossing the beltline is especially hair-raising.
_______________________________________________
Bikies mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
