Ohio River Trail 

(In planning 16 miles when completed)

New Richmond Ohio (East of Cincinnati) to downtown Cincinnati 
(A Part of the Ohio To Erie Trail) 

"Purple People Bridge" - Downtown Cincinnati to Newport Kentucky

Photo by Jake Mecklenborg  (More Pictures)

  Planned 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 for visitors). 

Trail Development News: 06/08/09

• Ohio River Way Gets Permission to Raise Funds for New Trail -  After years of planning and negotiations, Ohio River Way has announced a funding drive and schedule to build the Ohio River Trail from East End to Downtown along the Oasis Rail line. This is considered the "temporary" route that would utilize the rail bed and the four miles of inactive track. The trail would be paved and fenced from the active rail line used for occasional freight delivery. The agreement reached for proceeding with the trail in the rail corridor calls for $4 million of private funding for this section as public funding was used to originally purchase the railroad right of way to preserve it only for rail transit operations. The goal is to have the necessary pledges in hand by December 2009 and the trail completed in 2010. Hamilton County Parks will manage the construction and maintain the trail. This civic initiative is being led by Ohio River Way, an Ohio 501(c)3 non-profit corporation. Visit the Ohio River Way website to buy a few inches toward the construction of the trail. http://www.ohioriverway.org/ohiorivertrail/   (Source Don Burrell OKI) 
  
  

• Lunken Airport to downtown Cincinnati Receives Funding - The Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana Council of Governments (OKI) have approved a $1.75 Million dollar grant to construct a 0.5 mi trail from Wilmer Ave. (Lunken Airport) to Carrel St.,  this is heading west from Lunken towards downtown. See this Yahoo Map to see where this segment of the trail will be. The black "A" at the bottom left of the map is Carrel Street. Wilmer Avenue is in the bottom right corner of the map. 
  
  

• The Ohio River Way - (the organization working to build this trail) will soon be launching a web campaign to attempt to raise $4M of private money to build a trail from Carrel St. to Downtown along an abandoned rail on the Oasis rail line.  People can make tax deductible donations via their web site See this Yahoo Map. I have left the map with a streets view. You can see the old "Oasis Rail-line" running West from Lunken Airport along the river. If you move the map West you can see where the trail will cross the Ohio River at the L&N Pedestrian Bridge or Click Here  to see a Yahoo Map of the bridge crossing the river at Sawyer's Point in downtown Cincinnati. You can see the bridge clearly marked "L&N Pedestrian Bridge." 
  
  

• New Funding for Trail East of Lunken Airport- The City of Cincinnati has redirected a $2.1M TEA-21 funds to be spent on connecting the trail from Margrish Riverlands Preserve, on the east side of the Little Miami across from Lunken, over to Lunken airport.  Crossing the river has long been an obstacle. Click on this Yahoo Map. It shows Lunken Airport in the middle of the image. On the right side (East) of the Little Miami Scenic River is the Margrish Riverlands Preserve. 

City of Cincinnati Bicycle Transportation Program  -  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 Chaired 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. 

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

• Anderson Township & Anderson Park District
  
  

• Clermont County & Clermont County Park District
  
  

• Hamilton County & Hamilton County Park District
  
  

• City of Cincinnati

  • Department of Transportation & Engineering

  • Park Board

  • Recreation Commission
    
    

• Village of New Richmond & New Richmond Business Association
  
  

• Pierce Township
  
  

• Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments  (See the OKI page and Plan) 
  
  

• Kentucky Rails To Trails Council ( Newport-Southbank Bridge plans) 
  

Proposed Trail Maps (See below)

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.   Ohio River Trail Feasibility Study Recommendations:  for more information about the trail

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. 

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