A planned six-mile, $65 million pedestrian and bike rail trail stretching from downtown Hartford’s Union Station to Bloomfield’s town center could be completed within five years, the project’s designer said. The hARTline comes with a cost estimate of $65 million, compared to tens-of-billions of dollars for the larger highway-capping and reconfiguration envisioned in the award-winning Hartford 400 plan, which Suisman helped develop. Hartford officials and nonprofit leaders are currently assembling $2.4 million to fund the design of the trail line. The Hartford 400 plan envisions a spur using expanded city sidewalks past Dunkin’ Park to Market Street, where a pedestrian bridge would carry cyclists and pedestrians over Interstate 91 and into Riverside Park by the municipal boathouse. The hARTline would connect with a network of trails reaching other communities and, ultimately, could serve as Hartford’s contribution to the planned 3,000-mile “East Coast Greenway” pedestrian and bicycle route stretching from Maine to Florida.
https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/city-nonprofit-development-team-eye-65m-rail-trail-from-downtown-hartford-to-bloomfield