City of New Haven completes final phase of canal trail; set to open in May

The final phase of the Farmington Canal Heritage Project will soon be available to the public.

The City of New Haven has been working on the final stretch since 2021.

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Phase four of the trail will begin at the existing Temple Street entrance, continue into downtown before going underground and coming back up to street level on Grove Street, and continuing all the way to Long Wharf Drive.

“This final section in the downtown area, it's a pretty dense area, will open up a key corridor for people that are biking as far as Hamden and beyond to the city to be able to access our downtown,” Mayor Justin Elicker said. 

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The latest portion is in addition to the entire length of the trail, which stretches approximately 84 miles from Northampton, Massachusetts, to New Haven.

“This final section in the downtown area, it's a pretty dense area, will open up a key corridor for people that are biking as far as Hamden and beyond to the city to be able to access our downtown," Elicker said.

Elicker said the trail extension will serve as another option for people to access other parts of the city.

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“It enables more people to choose to ride their bicycle instead of driving, and that’s a great thing for your health, for the environment, it's also a great thing for parking, you can park right out front when you’re on a bike," he said.

While the project is a month away from opening to the public, Laura Brown, the executive director for the city’s planning department, said they came across delays with using the existing tunnel and acquiring permits.

“One of the challenges with building a trail in the middle of the city is one, we’re working with existing infrastructure so this was the canal that was built by William Lansing open in 1828, this is a repurposing of some of the infrastructure, which makes it really challenging to plan,” Brown said.

Phase four of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail will open to the public in late May.