Indy to extend Eagle Creek Trail nearly 5 miles
INDIANAPOLIS (MIRROR INDY) — For Speedway resident Donovan Miller, news that DPW will extend the Eagle Creek Trail has been a long time coming.
“I’ve been waiting for this for 10 years,” he said. “It’s going to be really nice to be able to come home and be able to get my two kids on a bike with no traffic around and be able to go north and south or connect to the B&O Trail to go east and west.”
City officials announced the extension at a meeting with the Pike Township Resident Association July 10, saying the extension would happen in several parts.
The first part, which has already been designed, will extend the trail from the end of the existing Dandy Trail to Crawfordsville Road this year.
DPW is working on finishing the design of the next two phases of construction, which will extend the trail from Crawfordsville Road to the B&O Trail and then from the B&O Trail to Washington Street near Big Eagle Creek. The trail will end near the intersection of Washington Street and Rockville Road, near a planned IndyGo Blue Line stop.
The 4.7-mile extension includes the construction of asphalt and gravel trails, pedestrian bridges over a small creek north of 21st Street and over the Ristow Branch stream near Holt Road, and benches throughout.
The $10.7-million extension, though, will only have lighting installed at intersection crossings, not along the trails. The omission, according to Department of Public Works project manager Gretchen Zortman, is due to budgetary concerns.
“We do not have the budget to pay for street lighting along the trail,” she told residents at the meeting.
That’s a concern for Speedway native David Anderson, 73, who can sometimes only use his bicycle at odd times due to his schedule.
The design could ultimately change. According to DPW, the last two extension phases are about halfway through the design process. Once the designs are finalized, around fall of 2025, DPW will begin accepting construction bids.
Construction is expected to be completed by fall 2026.
For more information on the Eagle Creek Trail extension and maps of where the planned construction will happen, head to DPW’s dedicated Eagle Creek Trail site or email DPW Engineering at dpw.engineering@indy.gov.
Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @heyEnriqueSaenz.