Appeals court affirms Katy bridge lawsuit dismissal

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- An appeals court Tuesday affirmed the dismissal of an environmental group's lawsuit that had sought to preserve an old railroad bridge for potential use as part of the Katy Trail State Park.

Although the decision marks a victory for Gov. Matt Blunt's administration, it does not settle the issue of whether Union Pacific can dismantle the bridge and use the steel elsewhere.

Still pending before the appellate court is an appeal from Attorney General Jay Nixon, who also had challenged the legality of the Department of Natural Resources' decision relinquishing its interest in using the bridge for the hiking and biking trail.

Cole County Judge Byron Kinder ruled against Nixon in April 2006 and subsequently dismissed a similar lawsuit brought by the St. Louis-based Great Rivers Environmental Law Center on behalf of several bicyclists and a donor who helped finance the Katy Trail.

The appeals court issued no opinion Tuesday while affirming the dismissal of the environmental group's lawsuit.

In 1987, the state acquired 200 miles of rail line from the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad for use as a trail that could someday revert to an active rail line, if necessary.

That deal kept ownership of the Boonville bridge over the Missouri River with the railroad, but it gave the state the right to use it for the trail if it assumed liability on terms acceptable to the railroad.

Kinder ruled that those conditions never have been met. He also rejected the assertion by Nixon that the 1987 agreement gave the state a property interest in the bridge that could not simply be relinquished by the Department of Natural Resources.