The Scandia City Council is moving forward with plans for an extension of the Gateway Trail in the city despite some opposition.
The council voted 3-1 last week to go out for bids for a trailhead on city-owned land near Meister’s Bar & Grill along with a tunnel under Oakhill Road (Washington County Road 52) and a one-mile trail connecting the two. Council member Jerry Cusick voted against the measure; Kirsten Libby was not in attendance.
Bids are due on Nov. 19, and the Scandia City Council will decide Dec. 16 whether to accept and award the bid for the project, said City Administrator Kyle Morell.
The estimated cost: $4.6 million. Construction could start in May and should be complete by the end of 2026, he said.
The tunnel under Oakhill, which has an estimated price tag of $1.5 million, has been controversial. Officials from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the agency that will own, operate and maintain the trail, say it is a necessary safety measure.
Opponents say the tunnel is poorly planned and unnecessary.
The Gateway Trail is one of the state’s most heavily used trails, attracting an estimated 314,000 users in 2024. It currently runs 19 miles from St. Paul to Pine Point Park in Stillwater Township. Plans call for a four-mile extension of the Gateway Trail from William O’Brien State Park to downtown Scandia.
The council will hold a public listening session in early December to give residents opportunity to be heard, but the council won’t take any action at that time, Morell said. Bids will be presented to council at either the public listening meeting or at the Dec. 16 council meeting, Morell said.
The final vote on whether to accept and award the bid for the Gateway Trail Project will be at the Dec. 16 council meeting, he said.
Funding deadline
Scandia Mayor Steve Kronmiller (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
The city got a $2.68 million grant from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources to extend the trail from the trailhead behind Meister’s Bar & Grill to Oakhill Road. The money also will cover a realignment of 2,000 feet of Oakhill Road and the raising of the road by 6 feet to accommodate the tunnel.
Funding for the trail extension must be expended by June 30, 2027, said Mayor Steve Kronmiller. Terms and conditions of the grant appropriation specifically mention the tunnel.
“We do understand that if we were to vote to reconsider an alternate location or something of that sort, there is a distinct possibility that we wouldn’t be able to meet that deadline and therefore we would lose the funding, so that’s a concern of staff,” Kronmiller said.
If the city had to go back and re-request funds in a different way, it would have to pay a 25 percent matching contribution, he said. “That (matching contribution) doesn’t exist in the grant that we have now,” he said. “It’s 100 percent funded.”
County contribution
Washington County is contributing $800,000 for work related to the tunnel and the realignment of Oakhill; county officials will not allow the trail to cross Oakhill, a county highway, at grade, County Engineer Wayne Sandberg said. To support a grade separation, county officials agreed to contribute financially toward a tunnel option, he said.
“At the end of the day, the council has to make a decision one way or the other, and not everybody is going to be happy with that final decision,” Kronmiller said. “But I hope people understand we are putting in a lot of hard work to understand all of the issues and make the best decision for the community that we can.”
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In the meantime, officials also are working on a plan to finish the connection between downtown Scandia and William O’Brien State Park, Kronmiller said. Design and specifications for that portion of the trail should be completed sometime next summer, he said.
“We still have to acquire the funding, but I definitely see the connection all the way from William O’Brien to downtown Scandia happening,” Kronmiller said. “And when that happens, I expect to see a lot of visitors coming into the town and improving Scandia as a destination for tourism.”
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