A groundbreaking for the Marquette Greenway will be held next month.
The Southwest Michigan Planning Commission’s Marcy Hamilton tells us the Marquette Greenway is a trail planned from Chicago to New Buffalo. The section being constructed this year is the trail’s first in Michigan.
“It’s going to include a trailhead in downtown New Buffalo at the corner of Mechanic and Smith street, and then the trail will be along US-12 from New Buffalo down to the entrance to Grand Beach,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton says work is ongoing in Indiana and Illinois. Laporte County, Indiana is now preparing for construction from the state line to Michigan City.
The project dates back some time.
“It’s almost 10 years that we’ve been working on it. It actually was first introduced by the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission back in 2005. That’s when the concept of this trail kind of emerged.”
Hamilton says the $5.5 million in work starting April 3 is Phase One of the project in Michigan. Phase Two is planned for next year, and that will be from Grand Beach to the state line at a cost of $1.2 million.
The groundbreaking will be April 3 at 11:30 a.m. at Smith and Mechanic Streets in New Buffalo.
