Ogden Receives Grant to Connect North and South Trail Systems
Monday, October 29, 2007 - 12:59 PM
The State of Utah, Park and Recreation announced a $200,000 grant that will be used to build a tunnel to connect north and south trail systems together at the mouth of Ogden Canyon. This means access to anyone at any time through Ogden and Weber County’s 135 miles of paved and dirt pathways.
“Trail expansion has been a focus of our administration and this represents a major milestone for our trails network,” says Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey. “This bridge will connect about 10miles of parkway trail and create access to people living or working in the south west area of town to our mountain trail system. We owe a great deal of thanks to Jay Lowder who has worked for years to pull this off.”
The underpass is a key link between the Bonneville Shoreline South and the Bonneville Shoreline North Trail System and provides the only safe alternative transportation passage across the 12th Street/Ogden Canyon roadway. The underpass not only is the link between Ogden and North Ogden’s trail system, but also will eventually link to Logan.
Jay Lowder, Manager of Ogden City’s Public Ways and Parks says, “This underpass is one of the most important junctions in our community trail system. It links north to south and east to west. The completion of this integral part of this system means that everyone now has some way of enjoying the entire trail system.”
Lowder and Ogden City worked with Utah State Parks and Recreation, Ogden Trail Network, Weber Pathways, West Have, Riverdale and UDOT to get the trail bridge completed. Weber State students are currently researching how many people use the Ogden and Weber County trail system, but it is estimated in the hundreds of thousands of user days.
