Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne's proclamation to Mandel Founation.For years, cyclists traveling along Cleveland’s lakefront had to make do with a route that was there — but not necessarily designed for them.

Now, a 2.7-mile stretch between East 9th Street and East 55th Street, toward North Marginal Road, gives cyclists and pedestrians a dedicated, off-road path along Lake Erie.

Cuyahoga County officially opened the Mandel Community Trail yesterday, Tuesday, Sept. 22, filling a gap that planners have identified for more than a decade and creating a new connection between the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway and the Harrison Dillard Bikeway.

The trail is a partnership between Cuyahoga County, which managed construction; Cleveland Metroparks, which will manage and operate the trail; and the City of Cleveland. The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation provided $5 million for construction, supplemented by $5.6 million in federal Carbon Reduction Program funding through the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) and local matching funds from Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland.

Trevor Hunt, Cuyahoga County’s senior project manager for lakefront projects, has biked the lakefront and knows the difference a separated trail can make.

“If you want to ride off-road along the lakefront, it's not that it can't be done today or prior to the commencement of this [Mandel Community Trail] ribbon cutting,” he says. “But it was more difficult—the stress of discontinuous traffic was there.

“If you're downtown and you want to go out to the east side and want to feel safe and comfortable, this provides that linkage to Harrison Dillard Bikeway to get you out to University Circle,” Hunt continues.

The Mandel Community Trail provides a continuous, off-road 2.7-mile route and connects several several pieces to the region’s existing bike network.

Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne speaks at the ribbon cutting.Filling a critical gap
The Mandel Community Trail has been more than a decade in the making.

The corridor was identified through several planning efforts, including Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative studies commissioned by NOACA, dating back to at least 2015.

Cuyahoga County’s Greenways Plan, a study commissioned in 2019 to examine the bike network and opportunities for additional infrastructure, identified the corridor as a “critical gap.”

The County is currently updating that plan.

“They had some terminology, and they were the terminology with critical gap, which was kind of the most important,” Hunt says. “And then regional links was another one of those terminology items.”

The Cuyahoga County Planning and Public Works departments identified the project as a priority in 2022.

Clevelanders wasted no time hitting the new Mandel Community Trail.“The County’s Planning Commission and Department of Public Works identified it [in 2022] as a must that we needed to focus on,” Hunt says. “Thankfully, we’ve come to that point and got it constructed.”

Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne says the trail is part of a larger effort to connect neighborhoods and destinations throughout the county.

“The Mandel Community Trail is an important part of our broader vision for a connected greenway network that links neighborhoods, residents, and destinations across Cuyahoga County,” Ronayne says. “By creating safe, accessible routes for walking and biking, we are expanding opportunities for people to reach the lakefront and ensure that our region’s natural and recreational assets are available to everyone.”

Connecting the lakefront to the east side
The Mandel Community Trail connects with the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway and provides a link to the Harrison Dillard Bikeway, which is also known as the Cleveland Cultural Garden Trail. That connection gives cyclists a safer, off-road route toward University Circle and the Heights.

A mural along the Mandel Community Trail.“If you're downtown and you want to go out to the east side, and you want to feel safe and comfortable, this provides that linkage to Harrison Dillard Bikeway to get you out to University,” Hunt says. “This is that critical gap to get you to the Harrison Dillard, and from that point you can really get into University Circle and into the Heights.”

The new trail also connects downtown Cleveland’s NorthCoast Harbor and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with east side lakefront destinations including the East 55th Street Marina, and the Metroparks’ Patrick S. Parker Community Sailing Center, and Gordon Park.

The trail provides new off-road access to the lakefront for residents of St. Clair-Superior, Glenville, and surrounding communities. Before the project, pedestrians and cyclists traveling along this portion of North Marginal Road had to share the roadway with vehicles to reach lakefront destinations.

The regional trail network also connects the lakefront route to University Circle, Doan Brook, and the Shaker Lakes.

The network continues east of East 55th Street, where an existing off-road, separated bike facility extends to East 72nd Street and toward the Cleveland Cultural Gardens.

Additionally, Cleveland Metroparks added lighting to a portion of the existing trail, coordinating the work with the county’s project. The new Mandel Community Trail is now illuminated along its entire 2.7-mile length.

More comfortable, more connected
Hunt says the biggest benefit may be the simplest one: making the lakefront easier and more comfortable to navigate by bike.

“A lot of people are going to say why didn't this exist sooner?” Hunt says. “Because a lot of people have informally been using it, along the natural roadway itself.

“The comfort and the ease of travel is going to probably be the most exciting thing for the most common user,” Hunt continues. “Just having the visibility of the airport and the lake.”

The project also required significant coordination because of its location near Burke Lakefront Airport and Interstate 90.

Members of the Cleveland Police Force celebrating the opening of the Mandel Community Trail.“You have to work with ODOT because it's a federal highway,” Hunt says, adding that years of planning and review have ensured the project has gone through the necessary requirements.

“I think it's been well vetted, and we've gone through all the requirements of the federal, government at this point,” he says.

The trail is part of a broader investment in Cleveland’s east side lakefront by the Mandel Foundation. The foundation has committed a total of $21 million to the Mandel Community Trail and additional trail improvements, enhancements to a 48-acre portion of Gordon Park south of Interstate 90 between East 72nd Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Boathouse at the Patrick S. Parker Community Sailing Center.

Improvements to Gordon Park are underway following a public engagement process.

After more than a decade of planning, a new connection between existing trails makes lakefront biking more accessible and gives cyclists a safer alternative to riding with vehicle traffic.

“I think it will be a game changer just in terms of essentially the linkage that didn't, this linkage didn't exist before,” Hunt says.