Medina mayor: state working on $10 million plan to upgrade north wall on canal, towpath

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – The concrete wall on the northside of the Canal Basin in Medina has crumbled in many spots in recent years.

The State Canal Corp. is planning to spend about $10 million upgrading the wall in the Canal Basin and also making improvements to the towpath from Bates Road to the lift bridge, Mayor Marguerite Sherman said.

She said preliminary designs are about 60 percent complete. She has seen the plans and said the end result will be a dramatic improvement for the community.

The state isn’t ready yet to release the designs, Sherman said. She said the north wall work will be staggered over several years because the work can only be done when the canal in drained during the winter and early spring.

Sherman said the state is bearing the costs of the project without any local share needed from Medina.

Signs alert walkers and cyclists to a bumpy stretch of the towpath on the north side of the Canal Basin. This sign tells cyclists to walk their bikes on a rough section of the trail.

The wall is crumbling and bumpy in many spaces.

The state Canal Corp. also is planning improvements over about 1.5 miles of the towpath. This stretch is just east of the Canal Basin area leading to Bates Road.