Rock Island Trail
Regional rail, bus, trails, and paratransit- Jackson County's Connection to a better future
Phase One:
Construction on Phase One of the Rock Island Trail is complete. The trail is 6.5 miles long, beginning at Brickyard Road in Kansas City and ending at Jefferson Street in Lee’s Summit. There are two official trailheads: 98th street Trailhead (12600 E 98th Street KCMO 64138) and Hartman Park (700 SW Pryor Rd, Lee's Summit, MO 64081). The trail is now open to the public.
Phase Two:
Construction on Phase Two is expected to begin in the summer of 2019 and should take approximately a year and a half. We expect construction will be complete in late 2020 or early 2021. Phase two will take the Rock Island Trail all the way to the Truman Sports Complex. This phase will have three trailheads: Truman Sports Complex, Downtown Raytown and Woodson Road in Raytown. Phase Two is 7.1 miles long and when done, will create a 13.5 mile trail on the Rock Island Corridor.
Connecting to the Katy:
Soon, we hope to connect the Rock Island Trail to the Katy Trail. There is currently an eight mile gap between the southern end of the Rock Island and the MOPAC which connects to the Katy Trail at Pleasant Hill. We have called this project the Greenwood Connector as the trail connector would run right through Greenwood, MO. During 2017 and 2018 Jackson County convened a group of stakeholders to determine the best route through this challenging 8 mile gap. This work produced a conceptual plan that we have started to pursue. Since that time, Jackson County was granted some new federal funding that will allow us to build an additional 1.5 miles of trail past our current southern terminus. This project is expected to begin in 2020. We will continue to pursue new federal and other funding opportunities that could pay for this project, however this is likely to occur as a succession of small projects over a number of years.
What was purchased from Union Pacific?
Jackson County purchased 17.7 miles of the Rock Island Railroad Corridor running from the Truman Sports Complex to southeastern Lee’s Summit for $50.1 million. Included in the purchase was the land itself, the value of having a contiguous corridor (immeasurable, difficult to assemble in any other way) and Union Pacific railroad rights on the corridor. The county purchased the corridor and rights in their entirety, meaning the corridor is still protected by federal laws as a railroad.
