Ohio River Trail 

(Under Construction 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 built by the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana Regional Council of Governments.  This 16 mile trail 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 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:  April 2011  (Revised) 

• Two sections of the Ohio River Trail were dedicated 28 April, 2011 as follows:

  • . The City of Cincinnati built  a connection from Lunken Airport near the terminal to Riverview Academy. The trail follows a former rail spur from Wilmer Ave to Carrel St where it goes south to cross Kellogg Ave. where it continues as a sidepath to the school. There it  connects with the existing trail to Schmidt Field.

  • Anderson Township built a section along the north side of Kellogg Ave between Sutton Rd (Three Mile Rd) and Five Mile Rd. This passes Coney Island and River Downs and has a connection to Kellogg Park. Part of this trail will use a green-space corridor acquired with funds from a Township levy for green-space, sidewalks and trails. 

  • Both sections are part of the Ohio River Trail Plan coordinated by OKI in 2000.  

•  The Ohio River Way -   (the organization working to build this trail) will launched 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 Google Map. 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." 

Image: Courtesy of  Ohio River Way

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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