Kettering bikeway link will connect off-street route from Centerville to Dayton

Credit: FILE

Credit: FILE

KETTERING — A new Stroop Road bike path link in Kettering will be less than a quarter mile, but city officials said it will finish an almost entirely off-street trail stretching from Centerville to Dayton.

The short project on East Stroop will run from Dorothy Lane to Glengarry Drive, providing a 10-mile, more direct route through the south suburbs to Dayton, Kettering records show.

When finished later this year, the Kettering part of Route 9 will run from the Dayton corporation line (south of the Woodman Drive-Rainier Drive intersection), through the Miami Valley Research Park and head south on a County Line Road section of the path completed in 2022, Kettering Assistant City Manager Steve Bergstresser said.

After crossing Dorothy Lane to Glengarry, the existing section goes down Stroop Road to Hempstead Station Drive, where it heads south, meeting the Hewitt Avenue connector into Centerville.

“It’s basically an extension of the Iron Horse Trail bikeway,” he said. “So, we will have a pathway adjacent to the roadway really starting at Hempstead Station … all the way out to the research park area on Spaulding Road.

“That will be a nice amenity and a nice connection point where bicyclists won’t have to drive through neighborhood streets,” Bergstresser added.

He noted that from north of research park, the trail will run “essentially all the way downtown to Dayton.”

Route 9′s current path cuts through Glengarry and the neighborhood near the Kettering Recreation Complex, said John Sliemers, the project engineer.

It goes north on Powhattan Place, crossing Dorothy heading into State Farm Park near Vale Drive, he added.

The project, the contract for which is expected to be awarded within two weeks, will cut more than a half mile from the current route, Sliemers said.

“We’re just excited to keep linking these bikeways together,” he said. “It’s great for people who want to use it for (work) or people going through the community. We’re just happy to keep doing this because many of us are bicyclists ourselves.”

The city received five bids on the work, which was estimated at $219,900, according to Kettering records. The business submissions ranged from L.J. DeWeese Co. Inc.’s $197,500 proposal to Belgray Inc.’s plan of $237,214.

The work is expected to take about four weeks, but may not get started until mid-summer, depending on the schedule of the selected contractor, Sliemers said.

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