On the north side, the Pufferbelly Trail's "Golden Spike" segment is complete. It's 1.7 miles of new asphalt from Ice Way to Washington Center Road, and the city marked its completion on December 3, 2025. The 130-mile connection behind the nickname still needs one piece that hasn't been built. That piece is a pedestrian bridge over Coliseum Boulevard, and whether its construction contract gets awarded depends on a decision the city expects to make around Thanksgiving.
The finished trail and the missing bridge are on two different clocks. The trail segment cost $4.2 million and is open. The Vann Family Crossing is now estimated at more than $12.3 million and was $2.3 million short when the latest funding vote happened. Any fall ride on this stretch runs into that gap.
What the open 1.7 miles already gives you
The finished segment is a 12-foot-wide asphalt trail. Most of it follows the old New York Central Railroad corridor. The City of Fort Wayne's completion announcement says it connects to nearly 700 businesses and names four of them: Glenbrook Square Mall, Glenbrook Commons, SportONE Parkview Fieldhouse and SportONE Parkview Icehouse.
The segment also includes a lot of trailside infrastructure. Landmark donors Brian and Kyla Zehr funded a trail hub rest area. The city's list of amenities includes:
- A pavilion and a bike repair station
- Accessible benches and picnic tables, with three tables built for wheelchair access
- Drinking fountains designed for both people and dogs
- An information kiosk, historical and wayfinding signs, and solar-powered bollards
- Dog waste stations and landscaping
- A new traffic signal at Washington Center Road and Industrial Road, plus a sidewalk connection on Washington Center Road
The city says it built the segment to ADA and PROWAG accessibility standards. Driveway crossings have transitions, street crossings have curb ramps, and every signalized intersection has accessible pedestrian signals. At the Ice Way end, the Ice Way Trailhead guide from Fort Wayne Trails lists Trek Bikes Fort Wayne, 2Toms Brewing Company and SportONE Parkview Fieldhouse as nearby stops.
The city names two outside contributors to the segment. The State of Indiana's Next Level Trails program gave a grant of nearly $2.7 million, and the nonprofit Fort Wayne Trails added $300,000 in donor funds. That mix matters later, because the bridge is being funded a different way.
Why the name waits on the bridge
The link the city is counting on happens at Coliseum Boulevard, also known as State Road 930. The city's figure for the crossing is 37,575 vehicles per day. It calls the corridor one of the busiest roads in Fort Wayne and northeast Indiana. The planned bridge would cross between Mission BBQ on the south side and the west side of Bob Thomas Ford on the north side.
According to the city, the trail and bridge are built mostly along the former New York Central Railroad corridor, and once the bridge is done they will connect 130 miles of existing trails in the greater Fort Wayne area. The city gives that connection as the reason for the "Golden Spike" nickname. The Pufferbelly is also one segment of the 82-mile Poka-Bache Connector, which runs from Pokagon State Park in Angola to Ouabache State Park in Bluffton. In the Journal Gazette's coverage, greenways manager Dawn Ritchie calls the bridge the final piece needed to bring those trails together.
Some of the trail on the far side is already built. A short stretch north of Bob Thomas Ford, on the south side of Coliseum Boulevard, went in during 2025. The bridge design includes an at-grade concrete trail that ties into it. Trail sits on both sides of the road, and nothing goes over it yet.
How a $7 million bridge passed $12 million
In July 2026, the city's project update still called the Vann Family Crossing a $7 million bridge. It was to be paid for with a $5 million gift from the Vann Family Foundation plus city money, with construction from September 2026 through the end of 2027. When bids came back, they no longer fit that number. 21Alive reported construction bids between about $9.9 million and $11.2 million.
The Journal Gazette's account explains the rest. The lowest construction bid was nearly $2.5 million above the engineer's estimate, and buying the land cost $800,000 more than budgeted. Together those pushed the estimate past $12.3 million. The 21Alive bid range covers construction only. The higher Journal Gazette figure includes the land costs, so the two numbers measure different things and don't contradict each other.
Here's where the funding stood after the late-September vote:
| Source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Vann Family Foundation gift | $5 million |
| City of Fort Wayne, approved so far | More than $4 million |
| Allen County–Fort Wayne Capital Improvement Board | $1 million |
| Remaining shortfall | $2.3 million |
| Shortfall if design changes go through | About $1.3 million |
The Capital Improvement Board, which manages local food and beverage tax revenue, voted 7-0 for its $1 million. According to 21Alive, that money only comes through if the project secures enough funding to move forward. The other pledges depend on the last $2.3 million arriving.
The trims being studied
The Journal Gazette reported that officials are looking at design changes, including redoing the railing and removing a staircase. Those changes could cut the shortfall to about $1.3 million.
Comparing that list with the July design shows what's at stake. The design calls for a steel pedestrian railing along the full length of the approach and main spans, plus a cable mesh barrier to keep objects from being thrown off the bridge. It includes path lighting, architectural lighting on a nonstructural arch, and lettering signage on the main span. It also has a stairway and sidewalk connection from the north ramp, intended to meet an Indiana Department of Transportation sidewalk project planned for 2029 to 2030. The Journal Gazette doesn't say which staircase could be removed. The July plan describes only one, so whether a cut affects that future INDOT connection is still an open question.
The structure itself has three parts: concrete approach spans running parallel to Coliseum on the south side, a steel beam main span under the arch, and concrete approach spans running perpendicular to the road on the north side. Because of underground utilities, the foundation uses micropiles. Nothing reported so far suggests cutting any of that. The proposed trims are to the finishes, not the structure.
The dates that decide 2027
The bridge's schedule has slipped each time it's been published.
- December 2025. The completion announcement expected the bridge to be built in 2026 through spring 2027, with the full connection done in early 2027.
- July 2026. The city's update said construction would run from September 2026 through the end of 2027.
- August 27. The city's project page gives this as the date bids were opened.
- Late September 2026. The Capital Improvement Board approved its $1 million, and the September start was off.
- Around Thanksgiving. The Journal Gazette reports that the bidder gave the city 90 days, so the city has until about then to decide whether to award the contract. Fort Wayne City Council also has to approve it.
As of today, the city's Engage Fort Wayne project page says engineering is complete, land acquisition is nearly complete, utility relocations are underway, and construction is expected to begin by the end of the year and run through the end of 2027. That's the plan if the funding comes together. It isn't guaranteed yet. Ritchie told the Journal Gazette that officials will ask the Northeast Indiana Strategic Development Commission and the Allen County commissioners for more funding. Deputy Mayor Karl Bandemer told the paper the trails are an important economic development tool and that the bridge is critical:
"Somehow, we just have to figure this out."
Part of the utility relocation work has already happened near the crossing. A September 11, 2026 notice from 103.9 The Wayne announced a five-day closure of Coliseum Boulevard's eastbound right lane for sewer relocation. That notice was about the road lane, not the trail.
Where Fort Wayne Trails fits in
Fort Wayne Trails put $300,000 of donor money into the Golden Spike segment, so it already has a stake in the bridge. Its own counts show how much the network is used. In 2024, 22 infrared counters recorded 1,032,077 uses across Allen County's 148-mile network. The nonprofit gathered and analyzed that data with the city and NIRCC. That's the most recent full-year count published. The Golden Spike segment wasn't open yet, and neither was the bridge.
For anything happening on the trail this fall, the Fort Wayne Trails closures page explains that the city decides official weather and construction closures and posts them on its Public Works site. The nonprofit passes alerts along when it hears about them. The Trek the Trails series, which the city and Fort Wayne Trails present together, ran every other Tuesday through the end of September. Starting points included Promenade Park, Life Bridge Church, Rockhill Park, Cookie Cottage and Johnny Appleseed Park. The 17th annual Pufferbelly Run/Walk/Stroll was held July 18, 2026, at Parkview YMCA, with proceeds going to trail development. Neither event will happen again before the Thanksgiving decision, so the next real update on the bridge will come from City Council's agenda.
If the contract goes to City Council and gets approved, the city's current window has the Coliseum crossing under construction from late 2026 through the end of 2027. If you're weighing a build or a move-up purchase near the Pufferbelly corridor and want help tracking what's actually funded and what's still only planned, Michael Lee can walk you through it. Let's Connect.
