Plans to add a quarter-of-a-mile stretch to the Museum Trail near the waterworks curve are progressing.
“Neel-Schaffer is designing plans for the segment of the trail at the waterworks curve,” said Dr. Clay Hayes Jr., a volunteer and advocate for the trail. “We hope to get it out to bid and start construction at the end of this year or early next year.”
The Jackson Heart Foundation is funding the design.
The segment that is being planned would connect the trail from where it ends in the Belhaven neighborhood to the stretch where it picks up on Museum Drive in front of the Mississippi Children’s Museum and the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.
“We want to connect them under the waterworks curve by the water treatment plant. That way we won’t have to use Myrtle Street in Belhaven to get from one section to the other section long term,” Hays said.
The city of Jackson had to provide an easement around the J.H. Fewell Water Plant and the Mississippi Department of Transportation also had to provide an easement, he said.
The 2.5-mile Market to Museum Trail follows the abandoned GM&O Railroad from downtown Jackson through greater Belhaven and along the eastern border of LeFleur’s Bluff State Park. The rail-trail portion of the trail extends from Laurel Street to the entrance of the Mississippi’s Farmers Market on Jefferson Street.
The trail provides access to four museums and three parks: the Mississippi History Museum, the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, the Mississippi Children’s Museum, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, Belhaven Heights Park, Laurel Street Park and LeFleur’s Bluff State Park.
The Jackson Heart Foundation has purchased four trash cans and six benches to place along the trail, Hays said, noting that those are expected to be installed in August.
The foundation has worked with the Greater Belhaven Foundation and other partners on projects along the trail, he said.
“It’s a lot of people working together,” Hays said. “We’ve been working on getting grants from AARP.”
The Museum Trail was made possible through federal grants from the Federal Highway Administration appropriated by the Mississippi Department of Transportation and the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District, with grant dollars matched by contributions from the private sector.
Organizations such as the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce and the Jackson Heart Foundation, along with numerous individuals and volunteers, contributed time and energy over the ten-plus year effort to reach the groundbreaking in July 2020.
