Trails grow as one closes: Coal Line, East Bank, Pumpkinvine and Erie

If you’re like me, you glance carefully each time you’re on South Bend’s Portage Avenue crossing the bridge over the future Coal Line Trail. Contractors with Selge Construction Co. have kept busy since work began early this fall to build the first half of the 1.5-mile path, linking Lincoln Way West and the Riverside Trail.

If the dump trucks and excavators don’t give you a clue, the orange barrels and signs tell you that the trail isn’t open or done yet. But here’s what we can observe as of Tuesday:

Concrete pavement has gone down for the path directly along Wilber Street for one block north of Lincoln Way. The concrete then angles onto the tree-lined corridor to Vassar Street, where several trees had been cleared out behind Holy Cross School. Lights line that section.

Beyond that, though, there are just a few lights erected as contractors are still digging and hauling dirt. Nothing has been paved there. One of the tasks in this project is to install pipes that will drain the standing water to which this section is prone. Lots of the trees and growth that had made the former rail line dark and forbidding below Portage have been cleared, leaving a long slope of dirt.

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City Planner Chris Dressel says the project team feels they can "substantially complete" the main route up to Portage in 2021, if weather cooperates. But the trail out to Riverside and amenities such as a plaza at Lawndale (the edge of Muessel Grove Park) will finish in 2022.

Work on the second half of the Coal Line Trail is due to begin next year. That would turn the old rail bridge over the St. Joe River at Riverside and Angela Boulevard into a pedestrian bridge and link this trail to the East Bank Trail.

East Bank closure

We expected the East Bank Trail in South Bend to fully reopen sometime this month, following a summer and fall when significant portions were closed for construction. That may still be the case, but, as of Monday, parts of the trail were still closed south and north of North Shore Drive. As you recall from my prior reporting, Indiana Michigan Power has been installing a new underground transmission line right along the trail.

Now the trail’s bridge over Leeper Avenue is closed until spring because of a different issue.

On Oct. 1, one of the Leeper bridge’s iron supports was bent when a “hydraulic excavation truck” drove along Leeper underneath the bridge, according to the police department’s crash report. The driver told police he figured his vehicle, at 12 feet 4 inches tall, could make it under the bridge because a sign labeled the bridge’s clearance as 12 feet 9 inches. But the top of the vehicle reportedly struck the bridge, causing the truck to roll onto the driver’s side. The driver suffered scratches to his eye.

The city has hired a consultant to determine the full extent of the damage, Cara Grabowski, spokeswoman for South Bend’s Department of Public Works, says. Repairs could begin next spring. Until then, she says, the trail bridge will be closed, along with Leeper Avenue and its sidewalks near the bridge. The bridge had supported a rail line before it became a trail. This affects the trail between Michigan Street and North Shore.

Lights on 933 trail

A series of 30 lights went up this fall on the trail along Indiana 933 between Holy Cross College and the Inn at Saint Mary’s. The idea was to boost safety for the students who use the trail, which was completed a year ago by Saint Mary’s College, the University of Notre Dame, Holy Cross College, Holladay Properties and the Holy Cross order of brothers, sisters and priests, according to Saint Mary’s. The lighting project was financed with $218,000 from grants from the Indiana Regional Cities Initiative and county tourism dollars.

Officials who built the trail have said they hope to see improvements to Indiana 933 to make it safer to cross, especially at three key intersections that students often use along the newly lighted section.

Sadly, a 69-year-old woman was killed Saturday as she walked one of those crossings. Winifred Hale, 69, was on foot when she crossed at St. Mary’s Road, which links Saint Mary’s and Notre Dame and which has a crossing signal and stoplight. She was hit by a northbound vehicle. Police were called to the scene at 5:53 p.m. Police say impairment of the driver didn’t appear to be a factor.

Pumpkinvine gaps

Almost all of the work was completed this fall to extend the eastern end of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail for 1.2 miles into Shipshewana. All that’s missing is a flashing light at the trail’s critical crossing of busy Indiana 5. That equipment, Town Manager Bob Shanahan, is ordered but is delayed by supply issues. Until that’s installed, he said, the trail isn’t officially open for safe operation, though people have been using it.

Otherwise, the trail pavement is down, along with some benches along the way and at least 32 bike racks and a bike repair station at the new terminus at Town Park, just east of the Wolfe Community Building, which contains town hall. There are also picnic tables, a pavilion and bathroom building that had previously been built in anticipation of the trail.

This has been a long-awaited connection, because, until now, the trail has ended at County Road 850, leaving trail users to follow County Road 250 North to reach town.

Now, the Friends of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail are raising money to fill the final half-mile gap between Middlebury’s county roads 35 and 20. That would finally avoid forcing trail users onto the road for that gap. And then, this 17-mile trail between Goshen and Shipshewana would finally be complete.

Coast-to-coast link

The Erie Trail, anchored to the west by the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson, recently grew from nine to 11 miles. State officials gathered for the Oct. 22 dedication because this flat, straight line through Starke County’s rural landscape is pegged as a connection on a developing transcontinental paved trail. The Erie Trail, about 20-30 miles southwest of Plymouth, is paved but has an adjacent natural surface for horses.

It would be a link in the Great American Rail-Trail, a route using existing and future trail connections that the advocacy group Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is promoting from Washington, D.C., to Washington state. About 55% of the route’s 214 miles across Indiana have been built -- namely, the Cardinal Greenway through Muncie and Richmond, the Nickel Plate Trail through Peru and Rochester, and snippets of other trails in northwest Indiana.

The Erie Trail already is part of the coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail, a mix of on- and off-road routes, and the similar U.S. Bike Route 35 that now spans from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., to Indiana’s southern border.

Carolla Heilstedt, president of the Prairie Trails Club that maintains the Erie Trail, quipped, “We are eager to welcome visitors from across the country.”

The extra 2.1 miles were tacked on to the eastern end of the Erie Trail, which has now moved to County Road South 700 East. The new section is almost three miles north of Tippecanoe River State Park. And that's just north of Winamac, where volunteers are raising money and working through obstacles to extend the 22-mile Panhandle Pathway five miles north to the state park.

The railroad museum is the best, easiest-to-find starting point on the Erie Trail at 507 Mulberry St., North Judson (hoosiervalley.org). The museum is open for free from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central time each Saturday. It will offer rides on its “Santa Train” out to English Lake and back, with Santa on board, departing at 10 a.m. and 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. Central time on each Saturday from Nov. 27 through Dec. 18. Cost is $14 for ages 3-15, free if younger and $20 for ages 16 and older. Masks are required. Book tickets online or call 574-896-3950.

Financing for the trail included a $390,750 grant from the state’s Next Level Trails program. Applications for the next round of Next Level grants — for a total of $35 million —are due Dec. 1.

Follow Outdoor Adventures columnist Joseph Dits on Facebook at SBTOutdoorAdventures. Contact him at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend Trails: Construction jobs continue for local neighborhoods