NEW ALBANY — The City of New Albany is beginning a trail project that will connect with the Ohio River Greenway and the regional Monon South Trail.
On Thursday, the city broke ground on the first phase of the Monon South Freedom Trail project. The work began this month for the portion that will go from the Ohio River Greenway into downtown New Albany.
This portion of the trail will then head north along 4th Street and go past Fairview Cemetery.
It will eventually connect with the larger Monon South Trail, which is also underway, with several sections already completed.
The regional trail will stretch for 63 miles through Floyd, Clark, Lawrence, Orange and Washington counties.
New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan said the trail is “something truly extraordinary.”
“This isn’t just any trail,” he said. “When complete, this will be the longest continuous trail in the state of Indiana.”
The Monon South Trail will go from New Albany to Mitchell once completed, and it will include the communities of Borden, Orleans, New Pekin, Salem, Campbellsburg and Saltillo.
Radius Indiana is leading the project outside of Floyd County, while New Albany is responsible for the city’s portion of the trail.
Gahan acknowledged those who worked to make the trail happen, including John Rosenbarger, a retired city employee.
“He’s now retired, but he was a longtime champion of urban trails, and his passion is critical in helping us seize the opportunity,” Gahan said. The mayor said the trail project will “change lives.”
“The benefits of trails like this — there’s no denying it,” Gahan said. “It’s undeniable how much they’ll change lives. They improve our public health by creating new spaces to walk and bike and enjoy the outdoors.”
“They expand transportation options, making it easier to commute and to explore our city, and they generate real economic growth.”
While the city has started the section of the trail that will connect with the Ohio River Greenway, it is still working on the design for the section near the county line.
Jeff Quyle, president and CEO of Radius Indiana, described New Albany as the “hinge place where we bring together the Monon South and the Greenway through the Freedom Trail.”
He looks forward to seeing how the regional trail comes together.
“We’re really looking forward to the day that someone can start in Mitchell, Indiana, come all the way down here to New Albany, get on the Ohio River Greenway, go down to Jeffersonville and then end up over in Louisville,” Quyle said. “And it’s going to happen. It’s going to be a great thing.”
Mark Becker, director of land acquisition with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, said DNR was proud to facilitate and fund the acquisition of the former CSX railway for the City of New Albany and Radius Indiana to build the trail.
“And we’re also proud to support this trail section construction through DNR’s historic trails investment, which is the largest in the state’s history and just part of the state’s seismic trails movement,” he said.
Becker said that “trails bring us together.”
“Studies show a clear connection between outdoor recreation, the growth of Indiana’s economy and the vitality of communities like New Albany and each of these communities up and down the Monon South corridor,” he said. Gahan emphasized that cities with similar trails have seen increased property values.
“These are the kind of investments that don’t just improve the community, they transform it,” he said.
The trail is a $7 million “investment in the future of New Albany with no new taxes,” Gahan said.
“That’s something we can all be proud of,” he said.
New Albany City Council President Adam Dickey said this project will likely take six months to a year.
“This is a challenging section because it does go through a large urbanized environment,” he said.
As the work progresses, people will begin to see that “this is real,” he said.
The design of the portion of the city’s trail on the former CSX rail corridor near the county line is still being finalized, according to Dickey.
“I expect that will be another piece that we will start to work on construction and release for bidding,” he said.
Dickey said the groundbreaking is the “culmination of a tremendous amount of work to bring a transformational project not just to our city but to the region.”
The project shows that the area can have “superior quality of life” through recreational tourism and workforce development, he said.
This will bring people to the region, and it allows the “community to be desirable and enable us to set up future success,” Dickey said.
Dana Huber, chair of Our Southern Indiana Regional Development Authority, said the RDA invested in the project because “we know we weren’t just talking about building a trail.”
“We were investing in connection, in community and economic growth — in a healthier, more vibrant future for our communities,” she said.
Gahan said this is a “trailblazing moment for the City of New Albany, for Southern Indiana and for generations to come.”
“So let’s build this trail together and with it, let’s build a stronger, healthier, more connected city, state and region,” he said.
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