A new multi-use trail will be developed for the Waverly Road bridge over Interstate-94 to the Orchard Apartments in Porter.
Michael Barry, the town’s director of development and building commissioner, said the Indiana Department of Transportation is overseeing the project.
There is currently a wider-than-normal berm on the north side of the bridge.
Barry said that the project will set the trail off with guardrails to better protect bicyclists and pedestrians.
The town’s share of the project will be a maximum $669,000.
Construction will include resurfacing the bridge. Barry said there will be no disruption of traffic, with one lane always remaining open.
When the bridge over the Little Calumet River was replaced in 2024 just south of the I-94 span, Waverly Road was closed for seven months.
Eventually, the town wants to extend the trail north on Waverly Road, making connections with the Dunes Kankakee Trail and the Marquette Greenway. One proposal calls for a trail that would go all the way north to Porter Beach.
The Town Council also approved an agreement with the National Park Service concerning the construction of a 1.04-mile section of the Marquette Greenway on the Mnoke Prairie.
Porter’s Redevelopment Commission last month awarded a $1,668,400 contract for the trail’s development.
Barry said that an agreement was needed with the National Park Service because the trail is on land in the Indiana Dunes National Park.
The neighboring town of Burns Harbor also will have to sign a similar agreement, Barry said.
Barry said that Porter’s portion of the trail will stretch from the Burns Harbor corporation limit at Babcock Road east to Howe Road. The Marquette Greenway Trail, when it’s completed, will stretch 56 miles from Calumet Park in Chicago to New Buffalo, Michigan. During the past few years, communities have been building portions of the trail.
The council also awarded a $368,004 contract to Milestone Contractors for paving projects this year.
Barry said that the bids came in lower than estimated. The town will only have to pitch in $45,000 as a match for the Community Crossing grant the town received from the state.
The town is working on an agreement with Chesterton to share the match cost for paving 23rd Street between Wood Street and Washington Street. The street serves as a boundary between the two communities.
Oak Street and Dunes View Avenue will also be resurfaced this year.
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
