Kinnickinnic River Trail

Kinnickinnic River Trail
The Kinnickinnic River Trail at East Washington Street, looking south
Length	2.5 mi (4.0 km)
Location	Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Established	October 12, 2013
Use	Shared-use path
Maintained by	City of Milwaukee
Website	KK River Trail
Trail map

The Kinnickinnic River Trail (Spanish: Sendero del Río Kinnickinnic), or KK River Trail, is a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) set of rail trails and bike lanes following the Kinnickinnic River in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.^[1]

The trail was first proposed by then-mayor John Norquist in 1998 as a means for both commuting and recreation by bicycle, with an estimated five hundred users per day.^[2] An organization involved in designing the trail stated that the trail would, for the first time, provide public access to much of the area around the Kinnickinnic River.^[3]

In 2001, the City of Milwaukee purchased an abandoned railway for the trail.^[3] In October 2006, a meeting soliciting ideas for the trail was held.^[4] Construction was underway by June 2013.^[5] On October 12, 2013, the trail was officially open.^[6]

Following a 2020 grant, in 2022, the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works began the design process for improving the connections among the off-street sections of the trail, the trail itself, and other nearby trails.^[7] The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is separately planning a westward extension of the southern section of the trail from South 6th Street to South 16th Street,^[8] and the northern end of the southern section is expected to be extended from East Lincoln Avenue to East Becher Street as part of the redevelopment of a former industrial site.^[9]

From its northern terminus at Water Street and Pittsburgh Avenue, connecting with an on-street portion of the Hank Aaron State Trail, the trail travels southeast along Water Street as an on-street bike lane, then bends southwest with the street south of Bruce Street. At National Avenue, after crossing a railway, the trail becomes a two-way cycle track bordering the eastern side of Water Street. After a westward street crossing at Washington Street, the trail turns south and becomes a rail trail. This off-street portion of the trail continues until Maple Street, where, after crossing Kinnickinnic Avenue, the trail once again becomes an on-street bike lane headed south on 1st Street. After a street crossing at Lincoln Avenue, the trail once again becomes off-street, curving westward with the Kinnickinnic River until terminating at 6th Street south of Cleveland Avenue, where it connects with an on-street portion of the Oak Leaf Trail Kinnickinnic Line.^[10]

As of 2023^[update], the northern section of the trail sees over 96,000 users per year, and the southern section sees over 20,000.^[11]

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