Towpath Trail - Stage 1
Current Terminus (lower Harvard Avenue) to Steelyard Commons
 
The consulting team in Phase 1 is led by the firm of DLZ. 
 
The first stage between lower Harvard to Steelyard Commons looked at an alignment which would  follow the Cuyahoga River from Harvard Avenue to ArcelorMittal Steel, where it would head west to climb over the CSX rail tracks (30 feet in air) to land at Steelyard Commons.  In the one year when planners began to investigate the feasibility of this route, there were dramatic changes in circumstances: (1) CSX abandoned an old wooden bridge trestle that crossed the Cuyahoga River near the northern edge of the former Harshaw Chemical which led ArcelorMittal to reconsider the necessity to retain an elliptical rail track within their facility as it became the only interface with CSX - the outcome here is that the Towpath Trail would need to elevate over the elliptical rail track forcing an extended elevated structure that would add $ 6 - 8 million to project costs .  (2) the area within ArcelorMittal used for slag storage and distribution that was targeted to move near I-77 would remain in operation and had grown in size - the outcome here is that trail users would be faced with airborne particulates as they rode or walked the trail section in ArcelorMittal between the Cuyahoga River and Steelyard Commons.