Meyer: “Today we take Walkable Bikeable Delaware into a new gear”

New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer

At a press conference yesterday at Christiana Care’s Visiting Nurses Association, Delaware Greenways and the Delaware Bicycle Council announced $30,000 and $20,000 grants respectively for two new “connector” trails that would make the just-completed  Wilmington-New Castle Greenway (“Markell Trail”) directly accessible to tens of thousands of people.

Delaware Greenways announced a $30,000 grant provided by the William Penn Foundation for a feasibility study of a pathway to connect the 10,000 jobs at the Corporate Commons employment center to the Markell Trail. The path would splinter from the Markell Trail near the tunnel under Interstate 295 and then use a Delmarva Power right of way to Delaware 141 and Commons Boulevard. The proposed pathway would go right by the Social Security Administration and News Journal offices on Basin Road and then also connect Wilmington University’s Wilson Graduate Center. The thousands of people who work in the Corporate Commons area would all just be a ~15 minute “low stress” bike ride from the Wilmington Riverfront and downtown Wilmington after the completion of this “connector” trail.

The Delaware Bicycle Council also announced a $20,000 grant to the Town of Newport to evaluate a proposed “Newport River Trail.” This trail would link the Markell Trail on the Wilmington side of the Christina River. It would parallel the Christina River adjacent to the Amtrak right of way right into downtown Newport. For cyclists traveling between Newport and Wilmington the pathway would serve as a badly needed safe alternative to car-dominated Maryland Avenue. For cyclists traveling between Newport and New Castle, it would create a connection where none currently exists: there is currently no way to ride between Newport and New Castle that avoids the Delaware 141 expressway.

New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer praised the new funding and thanked the William Penn Foundation, Delaware Greenways, the Delaware Bicycle Council and Bike Delaware. As part of New Castle County’s “Connecting Communities” initiative, Meyer said that the County would also plan additional low stress pathway routes and would continue to seek new funding partners to build out a growing bicycle network in order to spur economic development in New Castle County. “Today we take Walkable Bikeable Delaware into a new gear,” he said.