After a years-long battle between local activists and the city that featured environmentalist Sutu Forté climbing a tree and refusing to come down for over a week, the Shepard to Rollins connector of the Hinkson Creek Trail formally opens Wednesday for bicycles, walkers and runners.
The 10-foot wide concrete trail crosses the Hinkson Creek and provides non-motorized transportation access from Bluffdale Drive to MU. The trail will make up part of a 30-mile trail loop around Columbia and allow residents north of I-70 access to the MKT Trail, MU's campus and downtown Columbia.
The battle for the trail connector goes back over a decade. Forté and her neighbors said that the city first tried to put a trail in the area in the 1990s, but residents opposed it.
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