Last week the regional Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee reviewed the various options for a Missouri River crossing and chose to recommend that MoDOT proceed with the Paseo Bridge option. The recommendation includes a bike/ped path from Front Street on the south bank to 16th Street in NKC. It also asks local and state government to work together to build the Heart of America Bridge option separately.

Please take two minutes to sign a petition asking MoDOT to build the Paseo option.

While the Heart of America Bridge is probably the best choice in the short term, the committee felt that in the long run it was better to push for Paseo at this time, because:

• If the Paseo option isn't built now, it's very unlikely that we would ever find enough money to go back and add it on in the future. The current price of $9 million will be a lot higher in 10 or more years.
• The Heart of America option's price of $2-3 million is much lower and can/should be covered by local cities and counties. It could even be done before construction starts on the Paseo.
• In the long term we could potentially have 3-4 river crossings, but only if we seize the opportunity to build Paseo now.