Cleveland Metroparks received a $19.5 million grant Tuesday to construct two multimodal trail projects on the city’s eastside.
The funding will be used to construct pedestrian and biking trails in the Slavic Village and Union-Miles neighborhoods to increase equitable access to the rest of the city and give residents without personal vehicles more ways to get around, Principle Planner Sara Byrnes Maier said.
“The areas where the trails are going in have a really high percentage of households that don't have access to a personal vehicle. It's over 30% higher than the rest of the city of Cleveland,” she said. “That underscores the importance, you know, making accessibility for people that live in the neighborhoods, giving them a safe option.”
The $19.5 million award is the largest grant Cleveland Metroparks has ever received, Byrnes Maier said, and will allow the park system and collaborators to complete the trails without any local match.
“That’s obviously a very significant sum of money. A lot of times you have to go after these funding sources multiple times, or you get a partial award. So this was fantastic that we got a full award.”
$11.5 million of the funding will support the 10-foot wide, 1.7-mile Slavic Village Downtown Connector North that will run along Broadway Avenue starting at the Roseville Court intersection to the East 14th Street and Orange Avenue intersection Downtown.
The remaining $8 million will fund the construction of the nearly one-mile Morgana Run Extension to connect the Morgana Run Trail to the rest of the Metroparks’ trail network.
“These are trail projects that are difficult,” Byrnes Maier said. “They’re really high importance, but they also haven't been completed because they're difficult and because they're expensive. … If you look at a map and you see really the connections Slavic Village, Downtown Connector and Morgana Run Extension are making, they are filling really key gaps.”
Trail designs are still being finalized
Current plans for the new connectors include walking and biking trails fully separated from oncoming traffic, Byrnes Maier said.
“There’s an offset that's, kind of, the standard, or in excess of the standard, usually of a five foot, offset from the roadway, plus a two-foot shoulder for the trail, so seven feet away from traffic.”
The park system expects the fully separated trail to be more appealing to users of all experience levels and abilities, Byrnes Maier said, compared to a traditional bike lane that puts cyclists and pedestrians directly in line with traffic.
The room for separation will be accomplished by reducing the number of lanes in the roadway. Design is still being finalized to determine what the trail will look like on bridges, Byrnes Maier said, but construction is expected to begin in early 2026.
