These US Communities Are Advancing Transformative Projects Through RTC’s 2026 Trail Grants Program
In 2026, RTC awarded more than $435,000 to over 35 community organizations and agencies to support transformative trail projects. Learn more about RTC’s 2026 grantees.
The Lavender Pit Path in Bisbee, Arizona, hasn’t opened yet, but people are already stopping Meggen Connolley to tell her they can’t wait to use it. Connolley, the executive director and founder of Bisbee Bikeways in Cochise County, understands.
“There’s a real longing,” Connolley said. “People want a way to access Old Bisbee’s restaurants or concerts by bike or on foot, and it’s going to make life more fun and more interesting.”
These developments don’t happen by accident. They happen because someone—or rather lots of someones—conducted a feasibility study, sought community feedback, planned the trail, acquired the land, designed the project, poured the concrete, built the bridge and invited the community to experience the trail. This year, Rails to Trails Conservancy’s 2026 grants are putting more than $435,000 behind projects that do exactly that, with a focus on capital improvements: construction and land acquisition.
The projects—which include eight from RTC’s TrailNation Accelerator 2026 cohort—stretch across the country, with some closing a single missing link and others anchoring a whole network. All of them share one thing: a community that’s been waiting.
In a survey of Bisbee residents, 84% reported that they’d walk or bike if a path were there, Connolley said, underscoring the urgency for development of the 1.25-mile Lavender Pit Path.
“We have a car-centered culture in this area because it’s so rural,” Connolley said. “And right now people are isolated without a car. We’re going to use this Phase 1 momentum to keep pushing on the full 36-mile network.”
Just Getting Started
Many of this year’s RTC Trail Grants applications were for Phase 1 design, engineering or construction projects, which move a trail from an idea to a tangible plan to a community asset.
On Chicago’s West Side, 2026 grantee Equiticity is supporting a Phase 1 feasibility study to advance converting the railroad-owned Altenheim Line into a multiuse rail-with-trail. The study will determine what it will take, politically and financially, to acquire oversight of the corridor from the railroad, while building deep community ownership of the project, especially among the area’s young people.
“We know shovels on the ground are five, 10, 15 years away,” said Olatunji Oboi Reed, president and CEO of Equiticity. “But that gives us time to create a curriculum and plan for cohorts of sophomores or juniors in high school, to give them a few years to build an understanding of transportation planning, rails-to-trails projects, urban planning and how to think about community engagement and advocacy.”
Reed said the feasibility study is an urgent piece of the long-term project, but he isn’t waiting to activate the space. Programming, he said, has to start long before construction does, so the community will own the result.
“We want to make the space come alive with public purpose,” he said. “It can seem challenging to get people excited about something so far on the horizon, but the city of Chicago is committed, and by keeping the next generation of leaders in front of the project, we get to explore policy solutions alongside one another and create a trail where everyone feels invested and welcome.”
Building on the Community
In Charleston, South Carolina, the Lowcountry Lowline project is also overlapping construction and programming.
The Lowline will serve as the spine of a linear park system connecting eight neighborhoods across 1.7 miles of the Charleston Peninsula. Phase 1 construction just began in October, and 2026 grantee Friends of the Lowline is already working on a 500-person community potluck under the highway ahead of the Lowline’s opening to introduce neighbors to the space.
For Friends of the Lowline Executive Director Courtney Olson, the Lowline is about connection at all levels, bringing together neighborhoods that were cut apart by the railroad and highway.
“This is a way to build something that works alongside the community and the neighborhoods around it,” Olson said. “We’re giving people a way to funnel into a space where they can meet new people—and creating a green space that’s not just a park.”
The Lowline will give a safe route to school for 1,600 schoolchildren, mitigate stormwater and provide a habitat for migrating birds and butterflies. It will also connect to a planned high-speed bus line and other trails.
Prioritizing Access for All
One state over, 2025 grantee Catawba Lands Conservancy and Carolina Thread Trail began construction earlier this year on the multiuse Base Loop trail circling Spencer Mountain, near Charlotte.
As part of the project, the team hired an adaptive trail specialist to experience the trail as it’s being constructed and flag when accommodations may be needed for` individuals using adaptive equipment, such as track chairs.
“We’re prioritizing accessibility and allowing trail users to [be in] nature in a way that suits their desired comfort level,” said Ashton Lamb, the trail development manager of the Carolina Thread Trail and the Catawba Lands Conservancy. “It’s creating something different that can be a gateway for people with a lot of different backgrounds to experience a trail in a way that’s not intimidating.”
In addition to adaptive equipment considerations, Lamb said the trail is being designed with benches and places to stop and rest to ensure accommodations for people with other mobility or vision limitations. Based on the adaptive trail specialist’s feedback, there have also been slight changes to the grade and wider turns added.
“Really minor adjustments,” he noted. “They’re something people on the trail won’t necessarily notice, but a person with a mobility limitation absolutely would if it wasn’t done correctly.”
The project’s initial plan is fully funded through a mix of grants, public dollars and private support working together. But Lamb and the project team will continue to look for funding to expand the vision and make the next iteration even more accessible and accommodating.
Embracing Trails as Economic Drivers
Funding for trail development often comes in layers. Many programs will fund a trail only if the project brings some of its own money to the table, typically a percentage match of the total cost. Grant programs like RTC’s can help provide that match, enabling communities to secure vital state and federal dollars.
In 2026, RTC’s investment will help unlock more than $5.5 million in additional state and federal funding for 35 community organizations and public agencies, although the need in the United States is much larger. More than 170 applications for RTC’s Trail Grants were received this year, highlighting the unmet funding needs across the country.
Often, organizations and agencies pursuing funding will seek to communicate the economic impact of their projects—due not only to tourism and visitor spending, but to their construction and related business investment.
From its inception, a trail is a construction project, putting a local economy to work. Surveyors measure the route; engineers design what the future can look like. Crews grade, pave and plant. Suppliers provide the gravel, asphalt, concrete, steel or timber. A 2012 study commissioned by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials found that transportation improvement projects for greenways, sidewalks and bikeways create 17 jobs per $1 million spent. (Read more related information in RTC’s 2019 report, “Active Transportation Transforms America.”)
In Arizona, Connolley said the Lavender Pit Path is estimated to create 326 jobs and spur more than $5 million in private investment.
“These are numbers from businesses across the county,” Connolley said. “And since we first surveyed them, some have come back to say, ‘actually, it might even be higher than we initially thought.’ A lot of tourists come to Bisbee because it’s a historic mining town, but there’s so much evidence to show trails can attract more people.”
RTC’s 2019 research shows active transportation infrastructure has the potential to fuel an economic contribution of more than $138.5 billion each year nationwide. That’s nearly seven times greater—annually—than the cumulative federal investment of $20 billion made in trails and walking and biking projects over the past three decades.
“Building trails is a monumental undertaking,” Connolley said. “But it’s going to enhance the quality of life. What else has such potential for economic development that also gets us off our screens? We’ll have our first ribbon cutting in spring, but there are quite a lot of people who are really excited about what’s ahead.”
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