Ohio River Trail Winter Update 2009/10

A survey of the 4 mile segment of the Ohio River Trail was completed in 2009 by Hamilton County Park District and The Ohio River Way from downtown to Lunken.

The purpose of the survey is to identify the pinch points in the 50ft. wide corridor that will require retaining walls and new bridges when it is re-constructed for passenger rail and to explore where a permanent trail can be located compatible with rail.

This is an important ingredient in obtaining Federal Transportation Authority (FTA) approval for the temporary trail. In addition, The Ohio River Way will be working with the Eastern Corridor Transportation Improvement District to insure that their next round of studies include the evaluation of a permanent trail in the Oasis Corridor as a part of the multi-modal transportation plan.

The Ohio River Way Development Committee, chaired by Jan & Wym Portman made progress in 2009 toward raising the required funds to build the temporary hike/bike trail from downtown to Lunken. A total of $1.2 million of the $4 million private sector goal is committed to date.

It seems that the downtown to Lunken segment of the Ohio River Trail is the most complicated of the future Ohio to Erie Trail. To date 78% of this 320 mile trail is completed. Locally several segments are underway. The City of Cincinnati will be completing Elm Street to Broadway and Carrel to Wilmer (Lunken) in 2010 and Wilmer to Salem in 2012.

The Hamilton County Park District recently acquired several parcels to extend the Little Miami Trail from Newtown to Beechmont. Other key parcels are scheduled to be acquired in 2010.

Federal transportation funds totaling $1.9 million have been secured to assist in construction a 3.1 mile segment of the Little Miami Scenic Trail from the Little Miami Golf Center in Newtown to Beechmont Ave. The estimated cost for the project is $4.6 million with local funds to be contributed by the Hamilton County Park District and Anderson Township. The project is currently scheduled to be complete in 2013. State of Ohio capital funds totaling $1 million have been secured by the Hamilton County Park District to complete engineering and a portion of construction for a .4 mile segment of trail under Beechmont Avenue to Elstun Road. The total estimated cost of the project is $3 million. Additional funds are being sought for completing construction of the project.

The Hamilton County Park District has committed $2 million to design and construct a 1 mile trail and bridge connector between the existing loop trail at Armleder Park and the existing loop trail at Lunken Field. The project is currently scheduled to begin construction in fall 2010 and completed in 2011.

Other trail initiatives that connect with the Ohio River Trail include the Mill Creek Trail and The Licking River Greenway and Trails Initiative. Recently, Millcreek Restoration Project (MCRP) secured $500,000 from the Clean Ohio Trail Fund for the second phase of the Queen City South Mill Creek trail that will begin in 2010. The MCRP plans to complete the 3.4 mile Queen City-South Mill Creek Greenway Trail over the next two years to link the trail via the historic Miami-to-Erie Canal Corridor. Over the next five years, the MCRP plans to complete a continuous 13.5 mile Greenway Trail from the Hamilton County Fairgrounds in Carthage to the Ohio River. From the confluence with the Ohio River, the Mill Creek trail will connect 5 miles to the Central Riverfront Park and the Ohio River Trail. The Licking River Greenway and Trails initiative is an ambitious Northern Kentucky effort to create an urban greenway from the mouth of the Licking River to I-275. This trail to the south will connect to Ohio River Trail via the Newport waterfront and the Purple People Bridge.

A recreational trail connecting our region to Downtown and to the new Riverfront Park will be a great asset for Greater Cincinnati. It would not only enhance our quality of life but also be another economic development tool for recruiting companies and young professionals to our beautiful river city.
Ohio River Way will continue to advocate the vision with your help. Thank you for your support in 2009. We look forward to your continued involvement in the future.

Miami Valley Trails January 2010 Newsletter

http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/MVRT%20-January%202010.htm

Little Miami Scenic Trail is Trail of the Month for December

Trail of the Month: December 2009
Ohio's Little Miami Scenic Trail

Before the railroads reached Xenia, Ohio, locals had to depend on turnpikes and other back roads for travel between nearby communities. Those often unreliable routes made commerce a real slog in wet weather and icy winters. But after the Little Miami Railroad arrived in 1845, Xenia suddenly found itself fluidly connected to markets in Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and beyond. Trains through town shuttled everything from Civil War recruits and ammunition to farm goods and faraway passengers. On a map, Xenia looked like the hub of a great bicycle wheel, with rail spokes shooting out in from almost every direction.

By 1984, the last of those tracks had fallen out of service and into silence. Yet that spider web of unused corridors left the perfect blueprint for a rail-trail revival. Over the next 25 years, with the cooperative effort of towns and counties along the route, as well as the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR), rail-trail supporters built the region into a recreational powerhouse.

The north-south spoke through Xenia gradually grew into the backbone of this trail network. Opened in 1997 and now running 78 miles from Springfield southwest to the outskirts of Cincinnati, the paved Little Miami Scenic Trail is now one of the most recognizable and well-integrated rail-trails in the country. It incorporates more than a dozen communities, and like a mature vine the pathway has planted deep roots. Each stop and station along the route sprouted bicycle shops and ice cream parlors, bed-and-breakfasts and local festivals. Trail users feel cared for and catered to, treated to Midwest charm with big city ease—and the result is one highly popular pathway.

"Whether you're a novice rider or a road warrior, it's perfect," says Chrisbell Bednar, director of Greene County Parks, which manages about 14 miles of the trail surrounding Xenia. "People build vacations around this trail."

Mile 0 fittingly begins in Xenia, and you'll quickly understand the town's billing as the "Bicycle Capital of the Midwest." From the parking lot of Xenia Station, you can veer northeast to London on the Prairie Grass Trail, west to Dayton on the Creekside Trail, or directly east on the Jamestown Connector Trail. "We're real proud of the trails we have in Greene County," says Bednar. "It's kind of like our interstate recreational trails system."

Bednar says the trail has been incredibly fortunate to have sturdy political and public backing. Indeed the Little Miami Scenic Trail has thrived in no small part because of an exceptionally active coalition of supporters—folks who've been as willing to chip in financially as roll up their sleeves for maintenance.

In 2008, when Hurricane Ike pressed into Ohio, the storm snarled trees up and down the pathway. The Ohio DNR manages more than 50 miles of the trail as the Little Miami State Park, and that stretch included some of the hardest-hit areas. But the state didn't have the budget or resources to clear the pathway right away, says Alan Ferguson, assistant park manager for Ohio State Parks. Local businesses didn't want to wait and lose important customers, so they quickly organized the Friends of the Little Miami State Park and rallied volunteers almost overnight. Within a matter of days, says Ferguson, they managed to re-open the trail. "They've been just wonderful in garnering support and goodwill."

That level of volunteer dedication is hardly unusual on the Little Miami Scenic Trail. Perhaps the most vigorous contribution has come from Tom Recktenwalt, who has spent the last 12 years cataloguing Ohio's rail-trail progress from the seat of his bicycle.

Recktenwalt remembers searching in vain for some online information about the Creekside Trail in the 1990s. Not finding any, he decided to produce his own. Recktenwalt bought two bikes, a pair of helmets and a bike rack and started touring local pathways with his wife. He has since volunteered countless hours exploring trails in southwest Ohio, taking meticulous notes and more than 6,000 photos along the way. You can find all of Recktenwalt's play-by-play trail accounts on his website, Miami Valley RailTrails, which he has maintained since 1997.

What attracts such committed supporters, of course, is precisely what draws visitors from all over the state and country. In the course of 78 miles, trail users get to cruise a continuous, well-maintained, largely shaded and cool route—including a gradual downhill grade heading south from Springfield. They get to enjoy the Little Miami National Scenic River, as well. as protected wildlife areas and an Ohio countryside of grassy pastures, wildflowers, farmsteads, soybean and corn fields. They get to explore quaint downtowns, sample trailside ice cream parlors or stock up within feet of the pathway.

There's a little of everything, really, and what you get from the trail could change with every visit. So whether you're into birding or biking, ambling or antiquing, the Little Miami Scenic Trail has a way of feeling tailor-made just for you.

For more information, photos and user reviews of the trail, or to post your own comments, please visit TrailLink.com.

Check out Cincinnati's Bicycling Report Card

http://www.soapboxmedia.com/devnews/1201bicyclingreportcard.aspx?utm_campaign=Cityview&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_term=City%20gets%20a%20%22C%22%20on%20first-ever%20Bicycling%20Report%20Card%20but%20real%20opportunity%20exists%20for%20improvement

Miami Valley Trails November Newsletter

http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/MVRT%20-November%202009.htm

Ohio River Trail Update – Fall 2009

The goal of connecting the Ohio River with the Great lakes with a 453-mile bike/hike trail in the next decade is making steady progress in communities throughout Ohio. To date 262 miles are completed and 54 under construction. The most difficult section to complete of course is in Cincinnati, from Lunken to downtown.

Taking the leadership on the Little Miami Trail, Jack Sutton, Director of the Hamilton County Park District is in the planning/engineering phase on the extension of the Little Miami Trail from Newtown to Beechmont and will start construction within the year. Jack is currently working on securing the balance of the funds for the Beechmont to Salem section and a State Capital Grant of $1 million has jumped started the effort.

Wym and Jan Portman are leading Ohio River Trail private sector campaign to raise $3 million for downtown to Lunken. To date $1.1 million has been pledged. And, at this time there are three sections of the Ohio River Trail being managed by the City of Cincinnati that are moving forward. They include the following. The Elm Street to Main section is currently being built as part of the relocation of Mehring Way. The second section from Wilmer to Carrel Street is scheduled to be constructed next year. Finally, the Lunken/Wilmer to Salem section will take about 2 years for the environmental phase and an additional two years for the design and construction phase to be completed in 2013.

Assisting with all the legal and political challenges of the trail are Jeff Schloemer, Bruce Petrie and Rick Greiwe. The downtown to Carrel Street section will be built on an abandoned line in the Oasis Rail Corridor. SORTA has worked out a lease agreement with the Hamilton County Park District to manage the construction and to operate and maintain the trail. This agreement will be renewable on an annual basis. State and Federal transit authorities want to keep all the options open for future passenger rail therefore the trail is considered “temporary.”

The Oasis Corridor is approximately 50FT wide, which is generally enough real estate to accommodate both rail and trail in the future. The lease for the temporary trail still has to be approved by the Federal authorities.

Fortunately there are many examples of transit corridors that accommodate Rails with Trails and the Ohio River Way team will continue to push forward with their mission to leverage the recreational qualities of the Ohio River which is our region’s most valuable natural resource.

Rails to Trails Newsletter

Please check out the latest newsletter from Rails to Trails. Lots of great information and updates about what's happening in the trail world.

http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/MVRT%20-September%202009.htm