St. Catharines’ city-wide trail improvement project has produced 2,030 metres of brand-new trails and 540 metres of upgrades for many of the city’s pathways.
“The City took on this multi-faceted project to incorporate several improvements to the city-wide active transportation network including trail creation, trail renewal, and new trail and park connection points,” said Anthony Martuccio, director of engineering, facilities and environmental services. “Not only do these improvements provide residents with opportunities to use more active modes of transportation, it also helps the City to realize its climate change objectives.”
The City has created two brand-new trails within open park spaces. The trail at Fairview Park is on the site of the former third Welland Canal, located at 325 Geneva Street. It runs from Scott Street to Fairview Mall and boasts approximately 830 metres of new pathway. A second new trail at Pearson Park has 790 metres of walkways connecting neighbourhoods to park amenities including Kiwanis Aquatics Centre.
Existing trails at Rennie Park located at 60 Lakeport Road, and Lakeside Waterfront Trail located at 9 Main Street, received 190-metre and 50-metre path extensions respectively. The multi-use path that runs alongside the north-east side of Henley Island Drive was also resurfaced. These pathways are now open for public use.
Construction on the Merritt Trail continues as it adds another 720 metres to its pathway. The trail leads from just south of the existing railway crossing over to Glendale Avenue on the site of the former second Welland Canal. Merritt Trail will have a total of 420 metres of new, and 300 metres of upgraded trails.
Several of the improvements were made possible throughout the city with a grant received through of the Invest in Canada Plan (ICIP).
For more information on City of St. Catharines trails, visit stcatharines.ca/Trails