Letters: State should take trails efforts to next level
Trail-building in Indiana has become so extensive that it has evolved into being a component of multimodal transportation—and not just recreation.
Trail-building in Indiana has become so extensive that it has evolved into being a component of multimodal transportation—and not just recreation.
The trail will wind and curve near the White River for 5.4 miles from East 116th Street to East 146th Street once it is completed next year.
The Central Indiana Community Foundation on Tuesday announced the grant, which is meant to support the six-year-old Connected Communities Initiative collaboration with the city of Indianapolis.
In addition, Fishers received $4.5 million and Noblesville acquired $3.1 million in funding through the Next Level Trails program to build portions of the Nickel Plate Trail north of 96th Street.
The Indianapolis Cultural Trail Inc. is starting work on its 2-mile expansion, the trail’s first extension since it opened in 2013.
The Avon resident has been on a decades-long quest to blaze a paved path from downtown Indianapolis to Montezuma, a trail that is slowly taking shape.
Constructed so Monon Trail users could avoid crossing six lanes of busy traffic, the project required coordination with neighboring community groups, the Indiana State Fairgrounds, the Indiana Department of Transportation, and the Metropolitan Planning Organization.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources on Thursday announced nearly $30 million in trail-development grants to 18 statewide recipients, with more than a third of that money going to projects in Marion, Hamilton, Boone, Hendricks and Hancock counties.
Meyer Najem Construction, which has already started work on the Nickel Plate Trail’s $8.4 million southern approach to downtown Fishers, secured a $3.3 million contract last week to build the trail’s downtown plaza.
The city had hoped to begin construction this fall, but leaders are still finalizing design plans, Mayor Scott Fadness told IBJ.
Indianapolis has joined Fishers and Noblesville in a quest to turn the Nickel Plate Railroad into a 17-mile trail connecting the three communities and is seeking millions in state funds to make it happen.
Redevelopment experts are confident the west side will see a jolt in property values and development opportunities as plans to extend a Speedway trail both east and west move forward.
The African-American cyclist—who took the world by storm at the turn of the 20th century is finally receiving the national admiration he never garnered while alive.