CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Plans for the final miles of the Towpath Trail show an elevated section traveling underneath the Harvard-Denison Bridge and a stretch in Tremont that converts much of University Road into a bluff-side path with dramatic overlooks.

The plans are for the northernmost six miles of the Towpath Trail, part of the 101-mile Ohio & Erie Canalway that runs from Tuscarawas County to Cleveland.

Although most of the southern canalway is complete, building the final miles from the Metroparks Reservation at old Harvard Avenue to downtown Cleveland has been complicated and time-consuming because of a patchwork of property owners and environmental issues.

The remaining segments in Cuyahoga County are now expected to be completed by 2019, much to the delight of residents and others scrutinizing the "preferred route alternatives" for the Towpath Trail Extension at a meeting last week.

"I'm thrilled. It's been a long time coming and I'm glad we're finally getting there," said Tamara Sims of Old Brooklyn.

"I think it will be a huge plus for Cleveland and particularly Tremont," said Dr. David Perse, who attended with his wife, Gail Bidak, and their five-week-old daughter, Frances. "I think the impact significantly exceeds the dollars spent."

The Towpath Extension was broken into four stages, each with distinct characteristics and planning challenges. The total cost is estimated at $57 million.

Mile-long Stage 2 in the Steelyard Commons was privately funded by the shopping center developer, First Interstate Properties, and completed in 2009.

Construction of Stage 3, a 1.9-mile section from Steelyard north to Tremont, is expected to start next year. The route goes from the northern entrance to Steelyard Commons along the western perimeter of Clark Fields and Interstate 490 and from there along the corridor created by West 4th Street, an urban avenue that was planned but never built. Stage 3 is in final design and engineering.

That leaves Stage 1 -- perhaps the most demanding because of the need to skirt any uranium contamination from the former Harshaw Chemical Co., and Stage 4 --- with the complexities of building the trail alongside densely populated streets in Tremont.

They will be the last two major sections to be built south of the future Canal Basin Park on Columbus Road Peninsula in Cleveland.

Stage 1 heads north from Harvard Avenue, crossing the Cuyahoga River near the ArcelorMittal steel plant and tracking underneath the Harvard-Denison Bridge before turning north to connect to Stage 2.

Stanley Kosilesky, planning and finance administrator for Cuyahoga County, said it was initially thought there could be a broader swath for the 7/10th of a mile in Stage 1. But cleanup costs were prohibitive, so the path here has a fairly narrow footprint.

Planners arrived at an ingenious solution to avoid pollution: Aligning the trail underneath the high-level Harvard-Denison Bridge and, where it needs to clear the CSX-Norfolk Southern tracks and the Cuyahoga River, elevating the trail between the bridge's piers.

"There's just enough room horizontally and vertically to get it in there," said Matthew Lawler, with the engineering firm DLZ.

Environmental tests have already shown the bridge zone to be free of contamination from Harshaw's legacy from the 1940s of supplying uranium chemicals to the Manhattan Project.

Stage 4, extending from Literary Avenue north to Canal Basin in the Flats, follows the goal of nestling the 10-foot-wide multipurpose path in greenway settings to make the experience as park-like as possible.

Richard Kerber, the retired former director of planning, design and natural resources for the Metroparks, said residents who live near University Road in Tremont, in numerous community meetings over the years, have said they support closing much of the street and substituting it with the trail.

A dedicated right-of-way separate from the trail will retain access to Sokolowski's University Inn on the west end of the present-day University. On the east end, where there are several houses with garages that need access from University, one block will stay open to traffic. The entire route also will have access for emergency and service vehicles.

The ridge offers commanding views of the downtown skyline and the Inner Belt network. Small neighborhood parks and an interpretive area are shown in the plan by Michael Baker Engineering on display Thursday at a Towpath open house at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Tremont.

The Ohio Department of Transportation will build about 1,200 feet of the trail as it runs further north, along the west bank of the Cuyahoga River, beneath the George V. Voinovich Bridge. Improvements to the area will include landscaping, lighting, seating, terraced retaining walls lined with trees and greenery. ODOT expects its portion to open no later than the spring or summer of 2017.

The trail will end at the future Canal Basin Park, site of the original intersection between the Ohio & Erie Canal and the Cuyahoga River.

"I was extremely pleased with both the turnout and the comments that we received from the general public," Tim Donovan, executive director of Canalway Partners, said today.

"They endorsed our concepts and gave us every indication that we're on the right path. So let's keep moving," Donovan said.

One section of Stage 4 already is open -- 8/10th of a mile, running north from University Avenue to Carter Road, along the eastern edge of the Scranton Road Peninsula.

The Towpath Extension is a joint project of Cuyahoga County, the city of Cleveland, the Metroparks and Canalway Partners.