Levee Board announces opening of Big River Levee Trail

Levee Board announces opening of Big River Levee Trail

Agreement paves the way for return of cycling along levee route

news@theeveningtimes.com

The St. Francis Levee Board announced that the Big River Levee Trail will be open during the rest of October 2018, and beginning next March, the trail will be open for cycling and pedestrian traffic all spring and summer.

An agreement between the board and neighboring tenants authorized bicycle use of the entire levee (73 miles) from the Big River Crossing (BRX) in West Memphis to Marianna,

Photo courtesy of Big River Trail Arkansas.

Levee Board Chairman, Steve Higginbotham, said, “The Board is pleased to be able to open the BRT levee trail to bicyclists during the good weather times of the year.”

Big River Strategic Initiative (BRSI) announced two other projects connected by the newly opened levee trail. Big River Trail amenities enhancements were completed through the St. Francis National Forest.

BRSI is working to improve to an additional 42 mile section of trail from Marianna through the St.

Francis National Forest and Helena/West Helena. The new section of trail will connect to the Arkansas Delta Heritage Trail west of the city, and is funded, in part, by a $1.186 million dollar grant from the Walton Family Foundation.

When completed, the Big River Trail will stretch 115 miles from the Big River Park in West Memphis to the Arkansas Delta Heritage Trail (DHT). The DHT is also extended plans for another 30 miles south to complete additional sections that will total over 100 miles.

Together, the BRT and the DHT will offer more than 215 miles of continuous trail through the delta.

The city of West Memphis and the Advertising and Promotion Commission along with the BRSI continued developing Big River Park in Crittenden County with seven miles of already completed trail offering scenic views of the Mississippi River and the Memphis skyline. The park stretches along a looping trail between the interstate Bridges with a trail head across Broadway from Panchos Restaurant with more access at Arkansas landing of the Big River Crossing.

The number of visitors to the BRX continued to climb during the summer quarter. 60,118 visitors crossed the Mississippi on the scenic board walk ten stories over the river. Despite the much bigger population east of the river, one third of the bridge users started on the West Memphis side with access from Interstate 55 at the Bridgeport exit. While many think of the trail network and crossing as a bicycling experience, 70 percent of the bridge crossers were pedestrians.

a guest preacher at church Sunday and he told us about his dangerous journey through the Intersection of Doom on the way to the church. He didn’t even say where excactly he was but in describing how he waited for the light that never would change to finding himself in the wrong lane facing oncoming traffic, we knew. We all knew…]

By John Rech