FORT WAYNE — The Ohio River Greenway when completed will connect the communities of New Albany, Clarksville and Jeffersonville along the riverfront. It is a huge undertaking which seems to be making significant progress over the last few years. When the ribbon is eventually cut on the final phase of the project our Southern Indiana communities will be connected by more than just a simple concrete path. We will be able to walk, jog or bicycle unobstructed from New Albany’s Riverfront Amphitheater to Jeffersonville’s Riverstage and across the Ohio River on the Big Four Railroad Bridge that is being converted to a pedestrian walkway.  

Over the last couple of weeks there has been a lot of great news about the continuing progress on the Ohio River Greenway Project. The phase that connects 18th Street at the floodwall to Silver Creek at the border of Clark and Floyd counties was dedicated at a ribbon cutting ceremony July 25. In Jeffersonville work is progressing on the ramp that will connect to the Big Four Railroad Bridge that will cross the Ohio River into Louisville. It is great to see this portion progressing on the Hoosier side of the bridge after years of watching the ramp on the Kentucky side developing nicely.

When you stand at the newly dedicated portion at the end of 18th Street in New Albany, you are basically in the shadow of the K & I Bridge. The bridge, which carries railroad cars between downtown New Albany and the west end of Louisville, has been closed to automobile traffic since it was damaged in the mid-1970s. It has been pointed out that it would make a perfect addition to the Greenway Project, but very little progress has seemed to be made in convincing the railroad that it would be a huge benefit to our community.

Norfolk Southern, which owns the railroad bridge, doesn’t seem very receptive to the possibility of opening up the bridge to the public. A couple of years ago I took it upon myself to ask an official with the railroad company what it would take for it to be considered as part of the project. I contacted the company through its website and was given a simple reply directly and also a copy of a letter that was sent to local officials when they asked the same question I had.

In the letter, which is dated June 2006, they state “Norfolk Southern does not permit pedestrian traffic adjacent to train operations for reasons of safety, security operations and liability.” I do not understand why this would be such an issue with this particular project because of the design of the bridge itself. If you look at the K & I Bridge you will realize that the railroad tracks are separated from the traffic portion of the bridge by several feet of steel.  

The letter went on to explain, “For pedestrians to walk or bike near an active railroad line over which 35-40 trains run every 24 hours creates a possibly dangerous situation for members of your community.” If you were on the part of the bridge that was formerly used for automobile traffic nearly 40 years ago you would be much safer from a moving train than you would be at nearly any other railroad track once you got off the bridge. Any other railroad track you could be so near the track you could reach out and touch a moving train [not recommended].  

The addition of the K & I Bridge to the Ohio River Greenway project would connect Southern Indiana to the Ohio River Levee Trail which is part of the Louisville Loop which is a planned initiative to connect more than 100 miles of pedestrian and bicycle paths around the community. Creating a connection between New Albany and Louisville would also create significant new opportunities in recreation and alternative transportation.   

Leaders in Southern Indiana and Kentucky need to work together in order to help make this logical next progression in the project work. I believe that if the benefits of the project were pointed out to Norfolk Southern and any liability was assumed then they could be convinced to allow their bridge to be used in order to benefit the entire community. We need to ask the leaders of Norfolk Southern to take a closer look at this specific situation and hopefully they will realize their fears about safety can be easily rectified.



Matthew Nash can be reached at dmatthewnash@gmail.com.