Community Corner
Pinellas Connector Trail Set To Open This Month
The Pinellas Trail extension will connect to the 250-mile Coast-to-Coast Connector, currently under construction.
TARPON SPRINGS, FL – For more than 20 years, area residents have been able to go from the top to the tip of Pinellas County via the Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail.
With the latest extension of the Pinellas Trail complete, people will soon be able to travel from Tarpon Springs to Titusville on the Coast-to-Coast Connector.
Pinellas County will host a ribbon-cutting event for the newest Pinellas Trail extension on Thursday, July 20 at 9:30 a.m. Elected officials, community leaders, state transportation officials and cycling enthusiasts will attend the ceremony, which will take place at the southeast corner of East Lake Road and Keystone Road in Tarpon Springs.
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The new 5-mile segment will extend the Pinellas Trail and connect it to future rails in Pasco County as part of Florida’s Coast-to-Coast Connector Trail. When finished, the connector trail will consist of a 250-mile network starting in St. Petersburg and ending at the A. Max Brewer Causeway in Titusville.
The new Pinellas Trail segment 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.
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The state legislator funded the Pinellas Trail Coast-to-Coast Connector segment, which was 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.
For more information on the Pinellas Trail, visit www.pinellascounty.org/trailgd.
Photography provided courtesy of Pinellas County Marketing and Communications Department
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