Writen By: John Tuohy IndyStar
After decades of debate about the best use for the rail corridor through the Binford Boulevard area to the Indiana State Fairgrounds, Indianapolis has made a decision.
It wants a trail.
The city has submitted plans to the state to convert the railroad tracks that run parallel to Allisonville Road and Binford Boulevard, the Nickel Plate line, into an 8.6 mile greenway that would connect Fishers and Noblesville to Downtown Indianapolis.
The city and suburbs jointly applied for a $3.5 million trails grant from the Department of Natural Resources to build the first phase of the path from 96th Street, where Indianapolis and Fishers meet, to 63rd Street. Indianapolis would match the DNR Next Level Trails 2019 award with $1.9 million of its own for a combined $5.4 million, according to a copy of the application obtained by IndyStar.
The final phase would extend the trail from 62nd Street to the Indiana State Fairgrounds at 39th street. From there, bicyclists and joggers would be able to jut over to the Monon Trail, which runs south to Downtown Indianapolis and north to Carmel, or to the Fall Creek Trail, which winds to Fort Benjamin.
The route would be the city’s most ambitious trail development since completion of the 7.5 mile Cultural Trail Downtown in 2012 and would serve as a complement to the Monon Trail, finished in the early 2000s.
IndyStar first reported plans for the Indianapolis leg of the trail last August, but Indianapolis officials cautioned then that interest was preliminary and they would seek community support before making anything official.