Bikes Belong just awarded grants to four great projects in the fall funding cycle. Our investment in bike paths, mountain bike trails, and BMX facilities like these continues to create great places to ride in communities across the country.

Five Mile Creek Greenway Partnership—
Tarrant Aqueduct Connection (Alabama)

The Five Mile Creek Greenway Partnership, a division of Birmingham's Cawaco Resource Conservation & Development Council, will receive $5,000 to help construct the first stretch of the Tarrant Aqueduct Trail. This multi-use path, in Birmingham's historic Tarrant neighborhood, will connect two schools and link to 16.5 miles of existing rail trail as well as parks, green spaces, and residential areas.

Bikes Belong funding will leverage two Transportation, Community, and System Preservation Program grants, as well as two grants from the City of Birmingham. This is our first grant to the state of Alabama.

More about the Five Mile Creek Greenway Partnership.

City of Gastonia—Highland Rail Trail (North Carolina)

The City of Gastonia, North Carolina, will use a $10,000 Bikes Belong grant to help pave the Highland Rail Trail. This multi-use path, which will weave through a neighborhood whose residents are heavily dependent on walking and bicycling for transportation, will create a safe commuting route as well as a beautiful recreation corridor.

In addition to Bikes Belong's funding, the city received grants from two local foundations and was also awarded a Recreational Trails Program grant. Construction is expected to begin later this fall.

Human Powered Trails—Medary Quarry Trails (Wisconsin)

Human Powered Trails (HPT) will use their $10,000 grant to build sustainable singletrack on the Medary Quarry property, which was recently acquired by the Mississippi Valley Conservancy and placed under HPT's trail stewardship. The new trails will be geared at beginner and intermediate mountain bikers as well as trail runners and hikers, and will link to 10 miles of existing HPT-built trails, eventually doubling the size of the system.

HPT was formed by a group of dedicated volunteers who are passionate about their mission: "to develop and maintain a first-class, human-powered, active recreational area." By building exciting, dynamic trails, they also aim to prove, once and for all, that the Midwest is not completely flat.

More about Human Powered Trails.

USA Official BMX Training Facility (Florida)

A $10,000 grant award will help the USA Official BMX Training Facility open its gates to riders by the end of this month. This NBL-sanctioned facility will host clinics, training sessions, and events for riders of all levels—from beginners to Olympic hopefuls—throughout the Tampa area and beyond.

Local shops are thrilled about the BMX buzz this project has created and expect a surge of new riders once the track is complete. The dedicated, all-volunteer board of the USA Official BMX Training Facility (a nonprofit organization) also hopes to build mountain bike trails on the 60-acre site, which was donated to them by the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department.

More about the USA Official BMX Training Facility.

About the Bikes Belong Grants Program

Since Bikes Belong's Grants Program began in 1999, we have funded 154 grant proposals in 43 states and the District of Columbia, awarding nearly $1.3 million in cash and leveraging more than $457 million in federal, state, and private funding. Our facilities grants alone have helped finance nearly 1,400 miles of bike paths and trails that link close to 6,400 miles of trail facilities.