Cyclists, pedestrians will cross steel bridge for downtown loop
Jan. 25 , 2007
By Bob Downing, Beacon Journal staff writer
Another piece of the Ohio & Erie Canal Trail was lowered into place Wednesday in downtown Akron.
A crane placed a 16-ton bridge for bicyclists and pedestrians over the canal near Canal Park and Lock 2 Park.
The steel bridge with a concrete deck is 65 feet long and 14 feet wide, said James P. Weber, Akron's construction division manager. The bridge cost $115,000.
Weber said the bridge is a key element of a trail section that, when complete, will loop around downtown Akron.
The popular bike-and-hike trail now stops at the southern end of the Cascade Locks Park at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (the Akron Innerbelt or state Route 59).
Hikers are being directed east along sidewalks on Beech Street to North Main Street and then south along Main Street to Lock 3 Park, where the trail resumes. Signs are posted along Main Street routing walkers that way.
A section of the trail then runs between Lock 3 Park and Lock 2 Park further south along the canal.
But Akron officials want to route bicyclists around downtown to avoid congestion and problems along Main Street.
That will require building a $3.3 spur trail. It will run west along the Innerbelt, tunnel under a Rand Avenue exit ramp and then cross a new bridge over the innerbelt. The downtown terminus of the bridge would be at Quaker and Ash streets.
The city has hired a consultant, DLZ Ohio of Cuyahoga Falls, to design plans for the bridge, which is expected to cost $1.7 million.
As part of that project, Akron is completing an $810,000 link from Quaker and Ash streets to the southeast via city sidewalks along Quaker, Bowery and Water streets to Lock 2 park.
The bridge that was put in place Wednesday will carry bicyclists over the canal from the west and enable them to reconnect to the main trail.
The trail is a key element of the Ohio & Erie National Heritage Canalway, which stretches from Cleveland through Akron and Canton to New Philadelphia.
To date, 76 miles of the trail are complete and 25 more miles are being planned.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745.
