The City of Joplin has won a sizeable grant to fund a trail connection in North Joplin that will help bicyclists and pedestrians travel safely from Landreth Park to MOmentum Bike Park.
City leaders received confirmation this week that Joplin has been awarded a Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grant in the amount of $500,000 to help fund a trail that will connect Landreth to Dover Park/MOmentum Bike Park. The 2/3-mile trail will begin at the low-water bridge just west of the intersection of Murphy Boulevard and North Main Street, and will go all the way to Lone Elm Road. At its south end, the trail will also include a new bridge over Joplin Creek.
“This grant is another big win for Joplin citizens and a project that will improve safety and convenience for bicyclists and pedestrians going in and out of the bike park,” said City Manager Nick Edwards. “Our city team has made a significant effort over the years to identify and apply for grant funding for this project, which was a major priority for the community as identified through the planning of MOmentum Bike Park.”
This federal award from the National Park Service was provided through Missouri State Parks. The award was the final grant of the nearly 50 awards for which the City applied during its comprehensive grant-application project, which it has conducted over the past several years with consultant Guidehouse. This grant selection and application process has led to Joplin receiving nearly $58.3 million in grant funding for a variety of projects totaling over $98.3 million.
Like all its grants, the City’s new LWCF award was hard-fought – of the 33 applicants, only 14 were selected. The grant requires a match of $500,000 from the City, which will come from the Parks and Stormwater Sales Tax.
The project will bring exciting progress for cyclists and pedestrians traveling in and out of MOmentum. Work will include constructing the multi-use trail starting at the trailhead on Murphy Boulevard and running alongside Joplin Creek. The trail will be 12 feet wide and will include an 11-foot-wide pre-formed pedestrian bridge across Joplin Creek. Wayfinding signage will be added along the trail and at the trailheads.
This is one of two projects approved by voters in the Parks and Stormwater Sales Tax initiative. The second project, which will be constructed at a later date and is not a part of this grant, will include the construction of an underpass that will take cyclists and pedestrians under the existing North Main Street overpass (just south of Ozark Christian College and Dover Elementary School), giving individuals a safe way to access the new bike park without needing to use a crosswalk to get across North Main Street.
Momentum has been a popular destination for national and international cyclists since its soft opening last November. The bike park has already received awards for design and ingenuity and was the location this summer for the 2026 UCI Pump Track World Championships. The park is on pace to generate over 100,000 unique visits in its first year.
This project, which will begin soon and will be completed by 2028, gets the City one step closer to a continuous trail network including connections from MOmentum to Landreth and Ewert parks, and eventual connections to Campbell Parkway, Parr Hill Park, and crossing Range Line Road using sidewalks to connect with Prospect Village.
Reference:
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Cassie Faucett
Public Information Officer 602 S Main St Joplin, MO 64801 phone: 417-624-0820 Ext. 1204 |
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