Ohio River Trail

The Ohio River Trail is being planned by the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana Regional Council of Governments. This 16 mile trail (when built) will run West from the Village of New Richmond ending eventually in Eastern Cincinnati. The trail will run through Pierce Township, Clermont County and Anderson Township. A Northern spur will connect this trail to the Little Miami Scenic Trail just South of the Lunken Airport. To the West this trail will connect to the Purple People Bridge in downtown Cincinnati. The trail will then cross the Ohio River to Newport Kentucky next to the Newport Aquarium. (A must See).

News: On 25 January 2007 a open house was held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Mt. Washington Recreation Center, 1715 Beacon Street to discuss the planned trail options. The meeting was Charied by Ms. Eileen Enabnit, Director Transportation and Engineering, City of Cincinnati and other interested parties. Here is a link to their website where you can read their Ohio River Report To Council. See also their webpage on Bicycle Transportation Program.

At right you can see an aerial photo of Lunken Airport with the Ohio River just South of it. The Little Miami Scenic Trail is being extended South from Milford 8.8 miles to connect with the Lunken Bike Path around the airport. At the bottom of the picture you can see the intersection of Route 52 which is Kellogg Road and Salem Road. At that point the trail will be called the Ohio River Trail. It will then run East 16 miles to New Richmond.

If you Click Here you'll be taken to a Google Maps page centered on Lunken Airport in Cincinnati. You can then navigate to see where the trail will be for yourself. Lunken Airport is that triangle in the middle of the picture. Richmond to the Southeast from Lunken Airport on the Ohio River.

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The Ohio River Trail is being planned by OKI. The planning committee consists of:

Click on photos below for larger image

Images Courtesy of OKI
The images above are scans from OKI's "Ohio River Trail" brochure. If you click on each one of them in turn you'll get a feel from what this beautiful 16 mile trail will look like. As you can see the trail is on the Northern bank of the Ohio River. The trail starts at the East (far right image) at the Village of New Richmond. The trails runs West through Pierce Township, (middle right image) crosses into Clermont County, goes through Anderson Township and enters Hamilton County (middle left image) to end connecting to the Little Miami Scenic Trail North of the Lunken Airport. The (far left image) shows that a trail identified in this brochure as the "Proposed Riverfront East Trail" will carry the trail to downtown Cincinnati and hopefully to cross into Kentucky on the "Purple People Bridge" (See also below), at Newport. Here is a link to a good website with history and great pictures of the Louisville & Nashville RR Bridge now known as the "Purple People Bridge."
Please notice the Staging Areas (Potential and Existing). OKI and the participating Government's (see above) are planning 10 of them (if my math is correct). See the map sections above.
The yellow symbol at right tells you of planned Trail Overlooks (Potential) in the Map Legend (far right photo). There are three of them shown on the map. As the trail is actually built, the proposed location of both the Staging Areas and Trail Overlooks may change. Click to see OKI's page and download or order a brochure

Photo by Don Burrell
Click on photo for larger image

Above is an photo of the dedication of the "Purple People Bridge". It was dedicated 26 Apr. 2004. The old "L&N" railway bridge was converted to a bicycle and pedestrian bridge. It connects Sawyer's Point in Cincinnati to Newport Kentucky near the: Newport Aquarium.

For more information, including a copy of the Ohio River Trail Brochure, contact Don Burrell or John Heilman Phone: 513-621-6300; Fax: 513-621-9325; E-mail: dburrell@oki.org or jheilman@oki.org or click on the link above.