42-mile cycling 'super highway' in Cincinnati announced

Robin Corathers hopes Cincinnati Connects, a plan for a 42-mile continuous "super highway" trail, becomes reality in her lifetime.

"And I'm getting old, folks," Corathers joked to a roomful of trail, health and environmental advocates from around Cincinnati and Hamilton County, as they sipped their coffee at Coffee Emporium In Over-the-Rhine at the plan's announcement Wednesday.

It's the first time an uninterrupted loop trail around Cincinnati has ever been proposed, Corathers said, and it won't come cheap or easy.

It will take commitment and a dogged search for funding from people all around town, she said.

But building the trail, which would run through 32 of Cincinnati's 52 neighborhoods, would be worth it, said Corathers, whose organization Groundwork Cincinnati has been leading the Cincinnati Connects effort.

"We want people of all ages and abilities, income levels, throughout the city, to be able to get on the trail and travel through the entire city of Cincinnati without a vehicle," Corathers said.

It's about transportation alternatives, health and economic vitality; about connecting people to job centers, supermarkets and recreation, Corathers said.

This trail would act as a "skeleton" for connecting to other trails in Hamilton County and beyond. It calls for connecting four trails that have been in the works for years: the Oasis Trail, Wasson Way, Mill Creek Greenway and Ohio River Trail West, all in different stages – mostly early – of completion.

Click or tap here for a full size version of the map above.

The organizations have been searching for funding for years for their trails.

They know disappointment, including the recent failure of a Cincinnati Parks levy, which likely would have funded the four trail groups.

But Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune said now that area governments and trail and health organizations are collaborating and have a road map, Cincinnati Connects should get traction for state or federal funding.

As chair of Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District, Portune said the district will support the project in an application next year for state funding from the Ohio Department of Transportation.

"What benefits the city, benefits the county," said Portune, who is also a past president of OKI Regional Council of Governments. "This issue of connected trails is being embraced all through Hamilton County. Small city mayors, township trustees, village administrators, you name it.

"I know that because I've been out there meeting with them all," the commissioner said.

Without investing in trails the region misses out, Portune said.

He finds building the trail "very important; as we compete for businesses, as we compete for new investment, and, importantly, as we compete for people," Portune said. That depends on "where people want to settle. Where they want to live. Where they want to raise a family. Where they want to be for the rest of their lives."

Portune said we do not rank well compared to peer metropolitan areas with which Cincinnati and Hamilton County competes.

The plan, not including the four long-planned trails, is estimated to cost $21 million, Corathers said.

"This is not a pipe dream," Corathers said. The roughly 250-page report includes preliminary designs, route options along with cost/benefis analyses, paid for with a $186,000 grant from Interact for Health.

"This is step one," Corathers said.

Step two is finding the money from both public and private sources, Corathers said.