Highway 65 overpass for trail nears construction start

Jeremy Parsons: Trail officials feel responsibility to get overpass done properly.

Construction of a multimillion-dollar pedestrian overpass that is part of an ongoing greenway trail project between Springfield and Ozark is on the verge of turning dirt, according to local officials.

A pair of bids are under consideration for the Highway 65 overpass project that’s part of the Chadwick Flyer Trail, a roughly 12-mile regional trail designed for cyclists, joggers and walkers. Jeremy Parsons, the city of Ozark’s Public Works director, said bids for the project, which will be presented to the Ozark Board of Aldermen in December, also include work on additional portions of the trail near the proposed overpass site. The steel span bridge is currently expected to be constructed near the 39-mile marker.

The trail spans roughly 12 miles of the original Chadwick Flyer rail line that covered almost 17 miles from National Avenue near downtown Springfield to Ozark’s Finley River Trail. Over a third of the trail – roughly 4.4 miles – has been complete with another 1.2 miles included in the portions officials received bids on from Radmacher Brothers Excavating Co. Inc. and Emery Sapp & Sons Inc. in mid-November, Parsons said.

The Chadwick Flyer Trail is a collaborative effort between Ozark Greenways Inc., the city of Ozark and the Ozarks Transportation Organization. A cost study completed earlier this year for part of the greenway trail project pushed the total price tag estimate to over $30 million.

The overpass budget is $3.75 million and has multiple funding sources, officials say. The city of Ozark received $1.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds last year with an additional $1.5 million provided by OTO for the project. Additionally, the city of Ozark and Christian County each are supplying local matches of $375,000. Ozark Greenways was approved for the remaining $321,000 by the Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s Outdoor Fund.

However, Parsons said bids for the entire project, which will include building an additional roughly 4,000 linear feet near the overpass, came in around $5.2 million. That’s just over a $5 million estimate by officials.

“We purposely put those all out to bid at the same time to increase the overall project size and hopefully create some economies of scale,” he said. “Some of it is going to be just trying to find opportunities for value engineering. Once we get into the project, we’ve identified some of the different components that we feel like we can maybe find another material that doesn’t compromise the aesthetic integrity of the project. We’re looking at things like fencing, lighting, those types of things.”

Noting officials are going through bids now, Parsons said the plan is to bring a recommendation to the Ozark board at its Dec. 16 meeting. If the board approves one of the bids, work will likely begin by February, he said.

“We just feel like we’ve got to do this right,” he said, adding hopes are to wrap the project by spring 2026. “We get one chance to cross [Highway] 65.”

Legal consideration
As overpass planning continues, a St. Louis-based law firm was in Springfield on Nov. 25 to host a pair of educational meetings advising that adjacent property owners to the Chadwick Flyer Trail may be eligible for compensation as part of the rail-to-trail conversion.

Attorneys Lindsay Brinton and Meghan Largent of Lewis Rice LLC law firm’s Federal Takings & Rails to Trails practice group were particularly focused on the segment of trail proposed north of Lake Springfield that comprises the area between Kissick Avenue and Sunshine Street. That portion is not in active use by rail line owner BNSF Railway Co. The city of Springfield has been in negotiations with BNSF to acquire the railway corridor that follows north to Sunshine Street in order to proceed with the trail. Progress for the south side of the trail has been steady in Christian County, as BNSF previously abandoned the railroad.

Largent said the law firm’s presentation, which was attended by around a dozen property owners in the first of two meetings, was not in opposition to the Chadwick Flyer.

“This is by no means an anti-trail presentation and by no means is anything that we do trying to stop the trail, its development or its funding,” she said. “Our part of this procedure, to the extent there is one, is that we represent the landowners who are going to host this park through their property, and we specifically will work to get them compensated the fair market value of their land.

“It’s no windfall. This is what is the fair market value of what will be taken for the city and the community to enjoy this trail,” she said.

Via the federal National Trails System Act, which was enacted in 1968 and had a rail section added in 1983, Largent said that the federal government retains jurisdiction of abandoned rails for trail development. It’s due to the possibility that the trail may one day revert back to railroads. Because of the federal law, a Missouri law that states railroad easements return to the landowners upon abandonment is not applicable.

Also, through the law, she said the federal government is using eminent domain to retain jurisdiction over private property. However, under the Fifth Amendment, the government must compensate property owners.

“The defendant in these cases is the federal government. And I cannot emphasize this enough, we are not suing the city of Springfield or BNSF or any local trail group,” Largent said, noting she has been involved all over the country in rail-to-trail conversion legal cases at her firm for around 20 years. “We will have one and one defendant only in our cases – and that’s the United States.”

When BNSF applies to abandon their rails to the federal Surface Transportation Board, the process begins for landowners to pursue possible compensation. For abandonment proceedings to begin, the railroad must certify the line has not been used in at least two years and is too expensive to insure and maintain. Then, a trail group can request the STB issue a Notice of Interim Trail Use or Abandonment. Once this notice is issued, it triggers a six-year statute of limitations.

Through the lawsuit, lawyers would argue for damages, which consist of the property value, interest from the date of the NITU issuance and attorney’s fees and costs. Compensation varies for each landowner depending on their particular property and its relation to the trail project, she said, adding roughly 150 landowners could be affected in the case of the Chadwick Flyer Trail.

No lawsuit has been filed and Largent said the firm is just getting out in front of this process in the event it determines legal action is necessary on behalf of any property owners that choose to have them as their legal representative.

New leader
Trail officials say they didn’t attend either of the Lewis Rice meetings and have not been contacted by its attorneys.

Ric Ashe said the Chadwick Flyer Trail partially fueled his interest to become involved with Ozark Greenways. Ashe, a contract lawyer and trial attorney, is winding down his law firm, Ashe Law LLC, as he’s set to take over Jan. 1 as the new executive director of the trail advocacy nonprofit.

“I’ve tried to get myself up to Springfield before on my bike and it’s just too difficult to do,” said Ashe, who lives south of Nixa.

Noting there’s been a lot of progress made on the Chadwick Flyer, Ashe said the opportunity to succeed seven-year leader Mary Kromrey at Ozark Greenways materialized this year. Kromrey was hired in June as the Springfield office leader for engineering firm Own Inc.

“I spent a couple days thinking about it and just thought maybe I could help get this trail built,” Ashe said. “Over [Highway] 65, to me this is like a giant flag that says, ‘Hey, we’re here. We have trails, come enjoy us, come live here. We are working on our quality of life here.’ I’m just excited about it as a big advertisement, frankly, for the system as a whole and to get people realizing what’s out there, what’s being built and what’s going to be built in the future.”