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PARKERSBURG -A downtown bicycle/walking trail will be extended to the city limits thanks to a state grant.

The city has received a $180,000 grant from the West Virginia Department of Highways to construct a portion of the Little Kanawha connector trail. The biking/walking trail will run about a mile and half from the Salvation Army to Corning Park.

The city has been applying for the grant for several years, according to Mayor Bob Newell.

"We have applied for years and surprisingly, we got it," he said. "A lot of people will be very excited by this."

The extension will pick up at Third Street, near the Salvation Army, behind the Bureau of Public Debt. The proposed route will go to Depot Street, underneath the East Street Bridge, along Mary Street and Staunton Avenue before reaching the city limits near Corning Park.

Newell is unsure when construction will begin.

"It all depends if the highway department does the work or it goes to bid," he said. "We will be talking to the department of highways to do the work jointly. We do have a paving machine."

Newell said the city will need to make improvements on Depot Street.

"The bicycle groups will be excited to see this. They have wanted it for quite some time and it has been in the works for years and years."

Total cost of the project is $225,000 with a 20 percent match. The city is responsible for $45,000. Newell said the money would likely have to pulled from capital reserves, contingent on city council approval.

The money was granted to the city from the West Virginia Department of Transportation as part of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality project. City Development Director Ann Conageski said the request fell within the project's guidelines. The trail encourages less driving, thereby increasing air quality.

"This supports their notion to make air quality better," she said.

Randy Durst, transportation study director for the Wood-Wirt-Washington Interstate Planning Commission, said another grant would be needed to connect the trail from Corning Park to the Rails to Trails junction near West Virginia University at Parkersburg.

"We would have to find a project sponsor to take it to the next step," Durst said. "What it would take would be someone to put up the 20 percent match for the funding."

Durst is hopeful the Wood County Commission would take the reins on the project.

"We will try to plant some seeds to see if there any sponsors. We would work with them in developing an application."