by Phillip Obermiller
The Beechmont Connector, the last link in the series of trails between Cincinnati and Cleveland, is in the design stage. The $5.4 million project will make it easier for hikers and bikers to travel from the Ohio River to Lake Erie via the Little Miami Trail, a key segment of the Ohio to Erie Trail.
When completed, the connector will include a tunnel under the westbound ramp from Beechmont Avenue to State Route 32, and a 14-foot-wide lane over the Little Miami River on the downstream side of the Beechmont bridge. Approved by the OKI Regional Council of Governments in 2017, the remaining federal, state, county, city, and township jurisdictions involved have signed off on the plan and the necessary funds have been encumbered.
Specifications for the project should be completed in the fall of this year with construction beginning in the spring of 2021. The project’s target completion date of 2021 has been postponed until the summer of 2022.
Until then, the Beechmont Connector will remain the missing link.
Below: Artist's renderings of bridge with bike lane; tunnel under SR 32 ramp to Beechmont Avenue
Phillip Obermiller, a member of the FLMSP, biked the Ohio to Erie Trail in 2017.
October 2020
