The Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the City of Lafayette announced the completion of the Sagamore Parkway Trail in Lafayette, an asphalt multi-use trail available to the region.
The trail was constructed by the City with the aid of am$2,706,700 Next Level Trails grant, which was announced by Governor Eric Holcomb in April 2022 as the third grant cycle of the program. Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Bortner commented on the impact of the grant and the new trail for the community and surrounding region.
“Next Level Trails is all about making connections between and within communities,” Bortner said. “The completion of the Sagamore Parkway Trail is the latest of more than 100 miles of new trail connections that have been built with support from Next Level Trails. DNR is proud to come alongside partners in Lafayette to make this new trail possible.”
The new trail reportedly ads 0.9 miles of trail along Sagamore Parkway between 9th Street and the Wabash River Bridge with trail connections occurring on both sides of the completed project, including paths along 9th Street, the Wabash River Heritage Trail and the West Lafayette’s section of the trail.
The Lafayette Sagamore Parkway Trail has officially been opened to the public alongside the new 0.6 miles of the West Lafayette Sagamore Parkway Trail. The trails connect through a protected bike lane on the Sagamore Parkway Bridge over the Wabash River.
The projects are the first of multiple, funded trail projects, which will create an eight-mile looped section of the Wabash River Greenway connecting the communities, county and Purdue University to each other, Prophetstown State Park, and seven local, municipal and county parks. Wabash River Enhancement Corporation Executive Director Stanton Lambert explained more about the additional projects in the future.
“This is an exciting time for Lafayette-West Lafayette, Tippecanoe County and Purdue University,” Lambert said. “The Wabash River Enhancement Corporation and the city of Lafayette, along with our community partners in West Lafayette and the county, are thrilled to open this newest section of the Wabash River Greenway, which connects Lafayette and West Lafayette and Purdue University to each other and to the Wabash River Corridor.”
The $180 million Next Level Trails program is administered by the Department of Natural Resources to facilitate critical trail connections between Hoosier communities, and only 40 of the 89 projects have been completed with developments on others approaching in the near future. The completed projects boast more than 105 miles of trail being built since the program’s inception. Several projects are under construction with many more slated to break ground during the next year.
For more information about the Next Level Trails initiative, visit on.IN.gov/NextLevelTrails.
