NEW TRAIL ACCESS JUST IN TIME FOR SUMMER!
Get your bike tires pumped and ready to go! By the end of June, the residents of Waynedale should be able to connect to the St. Mary’s Pathway via a new ramp being constructed as part of the roadwork being done by Brooks Construction on Lower Huntington Road.
According to Brian Kiess, Project Coordinator for the City of Fort Wayne “Plans to repair the deteriorated pavement from Airport Expressway to just west of Winchester Road will be more patching type work. Just west of Winchester and through the intersection will be more extensive, encompassing the entire width, and then goes back to patching to the river. Brooks Construction will start work in the middle lanes and route traffic to the two outside lanes, and then when that is complete, they will flip to the outside lanes and route traffic to the middle.”
From a safety standpoint, this is a great addition as residents won’t have to bike on Fairfield or Tillman to access the Rivergreenway. From a commerce perspective, this opens up a whole new opportunity for the businesses located near the intersection and downtown Waynedale. People enjoying the trail coming out of Foster Park will have immediate access to dine on a tenderloin from Penguin Point, an ice cream cone from Dairy Queen, a margarita from Bandido’s or grab a Gatorade from Jerry’s Burger Dairy. They can also continue down Lower Huntington via sidewalks to Walgreen’s, Azar’s or Pizza Hut and other local businesses.
Additionally, the Fort Wayne City Council recently approved a contract with VS Engineering to design a 1.5-mile trail and sidewalk project along Bluffton Road from Lower Huntington Road to Winchester Road. The planned trail will connect to the Rivergreenway at West Foster Park. The cost of the contract approved Tuesday is $101,859 with tentative completion dates of 2016/2017 as it will be done in two phases. ”We anticipate that the trail will run along the east side of the road, and the sidewalk on the west side,” said Kate Riordan, a transportation planner for the city. “This project comes out of the Walk Fort Wayne Plan and has been identified as a high-priority project.”
The Waynedale Trails and Sidewalk Initiative has been very involved with this project, donating $20,200 from their fundraising efforts to pay for the design work of this project. Monies were raised from a variety of fundraisers such as Kingston’s Taste of Waynedale and Good Old Days events, Hair Affair Spring Fling, Pizza Hut lunches, Curves raffles, and many others. Continued fundraisers are scheduled such as Tuesday, May 5th from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. when Chick-fil-A at Jefferson Pointe will be donating 15% of their sales. And finalizing plans for a “Waynedale Pub Crawl!”
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