What will the future of bike infrastructure in Covington look like?

Attendees at this week’s meeting of the Covington Board of Commissioners got a sneak peek at how biking infrastructure could be changing in Covington.

The meeting saw presentations from reps at the Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance, or CORA, and Tri-State Trails, two cycling nonprofits involved in trail expansion in the area.

CORA’s presentation focused largely on way-finding infrastructure for the portions of their 934-mile regional trail network that will run through Covington. It concluded with the organization asking the city to grant them a licensing agreement to begin installing their proposed signage.

Tri-State Trails, on the other hand, focused on the possibility of the city participating in a feasibility study for permanent cycling infrastructure. That process could conceivably take years, and Tri-State Trails made it clear that it could involve the organization asking the city to contribute funding at some point down the line.

No formal action on either proposal took place at the meeting.

CORA’s Trail Program Manager, Diana Bolton, spent a few minutes going over the areas of Covington that will be affected by CORA’s OneNKY Connector system, which will connect the seven river cities in a network of trails. The point of the network, Bolton said, was to make it easier for cyclists in NKY to access schools, grocery stores, parks, government buildings and other important institutions.

“We would be connecting the Mainstrasse business district, Kroger, the Central Riverfront development, various parks and greenways, other civic and cultural landmarks, the library, post office and other key pedestrian infrastructure points like the 11th, 12th and 15th Street bridges,” Bolton said.

Part of this network would include way-finding stations at key locations throughout the trails. These stations would contain prominently displayed maps and signs showing entryways and exits from the trail network, as well as bike racks, repair stations, and, in some cases, Red Bike stations.

Bellevue was the only city that had formally adopted the licensing agreement with CORA, as of Tuesday’s meeting, Bolton said.

Tri-State Trails discussed a feasibility study to add more permanent cycling infrastructure in Covington.

“Right now, it can be challenging to bike across Covington and Newport because there’s not a whole lot of dedicated infrastructure that really goes to the destinations that people need to go to on a daily basis,” said Tri-State Trails Executive Director Wade Johnston.

Johnston discussed a feasibility study in Newport on Saratoga Street, which had already been funded, as an example.

Saratoga Street formerly served as a rail corridor, which gave the road a lot of space for Tri-State Trails to work with. The organization is proposing to “reconfigure the median so that we create a separated space for biking and have the first bicycle-specific signal in Kentucky, as far as I know,” Johnston said.

A specific area for Covington hadn’t been identified yet, but Johnston expressed interest in vetting areas along Tri-State Trails’ proposed Urban Loop Trail, which would connect Newport and Covington over the Licking River.

“We want your administration and team and elected officials to be on board with this route or make changes to it,” Johnston told the city commissioners, “so that if we are spending money to prepare a feasibility study, we all feel committed to implementing it.”