With a ribbon-cutting event on July 23, 2024, the Miami Conservancy District has completed and opened a new section of the Great Miami River Trail in Dayton. The trail runs on the east bank of the Great Miami River ("river left") from Helena Street to Keowee Street. It sits atop the flood protection levees (unlike the trail on the other bank), so even in times of high waters, this section of trail should remain dry and open for use. The map below shows the route of the trail, plus its connection to the Keowee Street Bridge and ultimately to the trail on the other side of the river. As shown, the new section is about 1.1 miles.
This new trail offers some pretty views of the river from on top of the levee.
The project is the first phase of a three phase project from MCD to connect all the way upriver to the City of Riverside's Eintracht Park. This first phase was funded by a grant from the Department of Commerce - Economic Development Authority. Future phases include transportation funding allocated by the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission.
As initially built in 1976, the 8.2 mile loop trail in downtown Dayton extended from Stewart Street (south end) to Helena Street (north end), with trail on both sides of the Great Miami River. Since its construction, convenient river crossings have been added at Fifth Street, Patterson Boulevard and across the Mad River to Deeds Point. With this new section of trail, the north end of the loop can be re-drawn to extend to Keowee Street. The trail loop length including this new section is now 10.25 miles.
This map below shows the alignment of the loop trail sections as well as river crossing opportunities that:
[Click on map for full size version.]
But there are two caveats: First, a short section of the route along Embury Park Road is actually ordinary sidewalk. This stretch is about 150 feet in length. Cyclists can ride on Embury Park Road very comfortably; pedestrians will find the sidewalk perfectly usable. The sidewalk section is pictured below.
By the way, bikes and pedestrians can comfortably (and legally) share the wide sidewalk on the Keowee Street Bridge itself.
Second, as this Trail Talk is published, it not currently possible to ride the full 10.25 mile loop because of a sanitary sewer construction on the north bank in the area of the Dayton Art Institute. That project is scheduled to be done in 2024, so the full loop should be available to trail users in a few months, or early 2025.
