The West Creek Greenway Trail when completed will be a 16-mile loop that will link the Metroparks’ West Creek Reservation to the Towpath Trail and Mill Creek Trail in Cleveland.

Since the trail runs through Parma, Seven Hills, Brooklyn Heights and Independence, each city is donating funds to build the greenway. Some of the trail will use the road network, but most will be off-road paths such as the already complete 2-mile section in the West Creek Reservation. The crushed limestone path meanders along the edge of the park and offers a tour of a variety of habitat.

Construction is well underway, said Jim Kastelic, Senior Park Planner with the Cleveland Metroparks, during Cleveland Bicycle Week (May 2008) but the greenway and network trail still have to overcome some big barriers including I-480, major streets, railroads, and water courses in the Cuyahoga River and West Creek.

Pedestrian bridges, such as those over I-77, and even the new bike bridges built along the Towpath just south of the CanalWay Center, are being considered. Utility corridors, on-street byways (when no other way exist and where the road is wide enough to add a path) and existing footpaths are all being used.

A mile-long section of pathway that follows a utility corridor was recently completed in Seven Hills, tapping $815,000 from the federal Transportation Enhancement Fund. “It’s not particularly attractive, but it links up with some recreation facilities,” Kastelic says. Another 1500 ft. long section through a park in Brooklyn Heights was completed last fall at a cost of $178,000.

Construction of the portion in Independence known as the Hemlock Trail is next, with completion expected by fall 2009. It will cost $2 million and connect Route 21/Brecksville Road and the surrounding area to the Towpath.

Other potential funding sources include a Scenic Byway grant.

"We’re doing it piece by piece as we secure funding.”