$25M Plan Would Extend Three Indianapolis Bike Trails, Start Planning for Six More
(INDIANAPOLIS) – The latest expansion of Indy’s hiking and biking trails envisions a connected system stretching border to border.
The City-County Council is expected to approve $25 million on Monday to extend three trails, and start design work on six more. Construction should start in 2023 on a rehab of the Pleasant Run Trail south of downtown, and extensions of the Pogues Run Trail on the near eastside and Eagle Creek Trail to the west.
Those projects were part of a trails expansion begun by former Mayor Greg Ballard. Mayor Joe Hogsett is proposing more trails creating a single connected network linking to trails in neighboring counties. One planned trail would trace the Inter-Urban Corridor south along Madison Avenue, linking with Greenwood’s extension of its own Inter-Urban trail at the county line. Another would link with Hamilton County’s Nickel Plate Trail, connecting downtown Indy as far north as Noblesville. And other projects would link multiple trails to form an unbroken path from German Church Road on Indy’s east side all the way to Speedway.
Hogsett says a connected trail network would unify the city’s neighborhoods, and remove barriers for people without cars. And council members La Keisha Jackson and Dan Boots say trails are an important quality-of-life factor that businesses look it in deciding where to locate. Boots says the connection to the Nickel Plate could mean the difference between people living in Indy or outside it.
The package would be paid for with money the city set aside for pandemic expenses which ended up being covered by the latest federal relief package, passed in March. Public Works director Dan Parker says moving the six proposed new trails from the design stage to construction would likely require additional state or federal funding.
