Walkers and bikers who use the Jordan River Parkway Trail will soon be able to travel its entire length uninterrupted by cross streets.
Utah lawmakers chipped in more than $1 million last month to help patch a 3-block gap on the paved path.
Until now, the 45-mile trail was interrupted in downtown Salt Lake City between North Temple and 200 South.
“The trail needs to go over three active freight rail lines and also under a major Rocky Mountain Power transmission corridor,” says Laura Hanson, executive director of the multi-agency Jordan River Commission. “So, the result is a 1,200-foot-long bridge.”
She says those obstacles have made the project complicated. But, thanks to funding from the parks bond four years ago and other sources like the state Legislature, there’s now $6.6 million to complete the recreation path, and the work is expected to be done by next spring.
“We hope that as we keep adding these individual projects that the use an appreciation of the river corridor will only increase,” Hanson says.
Once the trail is connected to other trail networks on its north and south ends, it will stretch 112 miles along the Watch Front.
