Progress continues to be made toward a continuous bike trail from Chicago to Michigan, but challenges remain. The 60-mile Marquette Greenway Trail will actually be made up of dozens of segments, with different funding sources and different government entities overseeing them.
On the eastern end, the City of New Buffalo has broken ground on its portion, while a one-mile stretch between Michigan City and the Michigan state line is complete. That's according to Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC) Active Transportation Planner Mitch Barloga. But he told NIRPC's Ped, Pedal & Paddle Committee last week that more property still needs to be acquired for the section through Michigan City itself.
Portions of the work are funded by a federal RAISE grant. Now, Barloga says they're applying for more RAISE funding for a complicated three-mile section on the west side of Gary expected to cost $21 million.
Barloga says the project has gotten a lot of support from the Region's community foundations. He says they've applied for $20 million dollars from the Lilly Endowment, with a focus on linkages to the Marquette Greenway.
