Part of the Flint River Trail.

Part of the Flint River Trail.

Six recreational trail projects have been approved by the Iowa Transportation Commission to receive a combined $3.4 million.

Craig Markley, with the Iowa DOT, says the largest award of $750,000 is going to the Fayette County Conservation Board for a short trail in Elgin.

“This project will construct about 1.25 miles of trail and a pedestrian bridge that will go over the Turkey River,” Markley said. The new trail will connect to three other trails in region. Another project in northeast Iowa was awarded $600,000. The Linn and Black Hawk County Conservation Boards will use the funding to construct and pave three-and-a-half miles of trail around Center Point.

“This will complete a continuos hard surface trail connection from the city of Ely up through Center Point, a total of about 30 miles,” Markley said. In central Iowa, the Jasper County Conservation Board will use a nearly $750,000 award to continue a “rails to trails” project. “This is the second phase of a project that we awarded funding to last year. It involves acquiring the right-of-way of almost 11 miles of deactivated Iowa Interstate Railroad corridor,” Markley said. That trail project will run between Mitchellville and Prairie City.

The other projects awarded funding by the commission involve the Flint River Trail in Burlington ($398,500), the Hoover Trail in Johnson County ($679,699), and the Hospital Connector Trail Bridge in Manning ($222,300).