Pinellas Celebrates Trail Connector Opening

TARPON SPRINGS, FL – With a cut of a ribbon, Pinellas County made the first stride for connecting Florida’s east and west coasts for non-motorized transportation.

More than 100 elected officials, local leaders, community partners and bicycle enthusiasts attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Pinellas Trail Coast-to-Coast Trail Connector on Thursday, July 20.

The new 5-mile segment extends the county’s Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail by connecting it to future trails in Pasco County as part of Florida’s Coast-to-Coast Connector Trail. It begins near East Lake and Keystone roads on the south side of Keystone and will extend toward the Hillsborough County line. It then continues north through the Brooker Creek Preserve to the Pasco County line.

“This is a great day for our wonderful trail, which is used by (people) from all over the world, including our residents and tourists,” said Janet C. Long, chair of the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners. “Opening this new segment shows that we’re proactively doing this every day.”

The Coast-to-Coast Connector Trail will feature a continuous 250-mile network of trails starting in St. Petersburg and ending at the A. Max Brewer Causeway in Titusville. The Pinellas Connector was the first segment of the Coast-to-Coast Connector to be completed.

The Pinellas connector segment was funded by the state legislature and approved by Gov. Rick Scott. Pinellas County partnered with the Florida Department of Transportation, Forward Pinellas, the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve, the Office of Greenways and Trails, the Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation and the Florida Greenways and Trails Council to complete the project.

The Pinellas Trail, which broke ground in 1990, stretches from St. Petersburg to Tarpon Springs. Funding for the project, which started as a 34-mile corridor of abandoned CSX railroad right of way, came from Penny for Pinellas funds. The trail now stretches for 54 miles.

For more information on the Pinellas County Trail, visit www.pinellascounty.org/trailgd.

Images via Pinellas County Government Facebook page