Fall Creek Greenway Trail Gets Bit Longer

New bridge over Fall Creek

It's common for cities to place multiuse trails alongside waterways – I rode many miles along the Platte River and its tributaries when I lived in Denver twenty-five (sigh) years ago; and even bike-hostile Houston boasts trails beside White, Bray's, and and Buffalo Bayous. Indy may be far behind cities like Minneapolis and Tucson, but (thanks to federal grants) we're catching up. In the past few years, a series of Fall Creek Greenway Trail extensions had reached the point where Fall Creek Boulevard disappears into Burdsall and the Creek bends sharply south toward its confluence with White River.

Within the past weeks, our fair city quietly finished another two or so miles of the trail, extending a paved surface (protected by a concrete curb) from where Burdsall crosses the canal to the intersection of 10th and Indiana. The construction includes a spanking new bridge across the creek near 18th Street and a crossing (with pedestrian walk light) at Aqueduct and 16th Streets.

The trail heads south beside Milburn, which becomes Montcalm, before a sharp east turn at 18th. A gentle veer takes users across the new bridge (image above) before turning south to parallel Aqueduct. Just short of 16th, the new trail crosses Aqueduct to a button-controlled pedestrian light on 16th; on the other side fresh asphalt runs though Ensign Martin Park alongside the stream to near Indiana, where it joins a mishmash of trails behind an apartment complex at the northeast corner of 10th and Indiana.

Eventually, the new section of trail will empty onto a multimillion-dollar extension of the city's beloved Cultural Trail on the opposite side of Indiana. The new section will give access to IUPUI and the medical complex between 10th and Michigan and, ultimately, reach to the bridge that hooks into the White River-Wapahani Trail.

The new stretch of trail between Burdsall and 18th runs though the industrial, underbelly of the near northwest including a large metal scrap yard (watch for sharp tire-destroyers) and, on the opposite side of the street, Flanner & Buchanan's crematorium. Innnnnterresting!

As is typical of Indy's multiuse trail engineering plans, that 16th-street crosswalk requires 90-degree turns immediately before and after the curb lines (can the city please hire a traffic engineer who rides a bicycle?) and the approach on the north side of 16th is restricted by a raised concrete area making it too narrow for more than one bike at a time (ditto on the hire). Still, it's an improvement on surface streets, and the protected aspect is quite welcome. That, and it's a nice bridge! When the new stretch of Cultural Trail is completed, the announcements of that triumph will probably include a footnote about the Fall Creek intersection. Remember, you heard it here first...

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