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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Cycling, walking trail planned for Ben Burr


Weathered fence posts and barbed wire frame the trail head white posts in the Moran Prairie area. 
 (Christopher Anderson / The Spokesman-Review)

Construction could begin this fall on a bike and pedestrian trail on a former commuter railroad bed in southeast Spokane near 57th Avenue and the old Palouse Highway.

Spokane County is planning to seek bids this month on what is expected to be an $800,000 project to pave the old right of way for approximately nine blocks to the north.

Preliminary work is likely this fall with completion next spring.

Chad Coles, plans and contracts engineer for the county, said the trail segment could become a key recreational link between the Windsong subdivision and Ben Burr Road to the south.

Included in the project is enhancement of a small wetland on the west side of the trail route, Coles said.

Staff members at Moran Prairie Elementary School are considering adopting the trail as an educational resource for students and getting the children involved in replanting the wetland on county property.

Work on the wetland will be postponed until next year, Coles said.

The county is starting the project with a $600,000 federal grant intended to improve alternate forms of transportation.

However, estimates show that another $200,000 will be needed for completion. So the county is applying for additional federal grant money.

The project will include a three-slot paved parking area at the south end of the trail at 57th Avenue. The pathway will have a 10-foot-wide ribbon of pavement with shoulders on both sides.

The trail will connect to Ben Burr Road to the south, which long has been used as a bike route. Last May, county commissioners sided with neighbors in declining to close a segment of the road and turn it over for development of a shopping center that has been proposed for the southeast corner of 57th and Palouse Highway.

The strip of land for the trail to the north often is referred to as the “Ben Burr right of way.”

Burr began his career with the Great Northern Railway in the early 1900s by hiking through the wilderness to survey a short line.

As district engineer, Burr was instrumental in negotiating the release of the right of way of the abandoned Inland Empire Railroad between Spokane and Colfax, Wash. That line, which served small communities south of Spokane, wound through Glenrose and along Moran Prairie just west of Ben Burr Park.

Other parts of the old line were turned over to the city, which used some of the land to create Ben Burr Trail between Liberty and Underhill parks.