Bender Park Bike Trail Coming in 2025

Bender Park trail project maps. Milwaukee County Parks.

A new paved bike trail running through Bender Park in Oak Creek will be constructed in 2025.

The new 1-mile trail will extend the county’s Oak Leaf Trail network further south, bringing bicyclists closer to the Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha Trail in northern Racine County. For Milwaukee County Parks, the project is closing a gap in the regional bicycle network and creating a 20-mile bicycle route (though with a not-fully-connected trail) between Milwaukee and Racine.

The new trail also connects Bender Park to the South Shore line of the Oak Leaf Trail, which extends north for approximately 16 miles to Cupertino Park in Bay View.

Milwaukee County Parks received a $1.3 million federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Grant (CMAQ) grant. Parks has used CMAQ grants to fund trail projects in the past, including a 2.6 mile Oak Leaf extension through Kohl Park. Matching grant funds were included in the 2024 budget and the department is planning for construction to begin in spring next year.

The new trail through the park is the second and final phase of the Bender Park trail project. During the first phase, Parks worked with We Energies to construct a bike trail on land owned by the utility and running from E. Drexel Avenue to the park’s northern boundary.

Bender Plans Other Bender Park Projects

Parks is also planning to dredge the boat launch and repair the only roadway running through Bender Park to the lakefront.

Lake Michigan currents regularly deposit sediment in the boat launch area at the park, making it difficult for boats to safely pass in and out without running aground. The department has dredged the boat launch three times during the past two decades. The dredging project received $820,500 in the 2024 budget and will likely begin in 2025, and the plans call for removing two to three times as much sediment as past dredging. Ideally, this will buy the boat launch another 10 years of safe navigability, according to Parks.

The sediment pulled from the boat launch will be deposited in a gravel lot in the park. It’s possible that sediment will be contaminated with pollutants, so parks will put a natural cap over it and fill it in with native plantings, Sarah Toomsen, assistant director of planning, told supervisors on the Committee on Parks and Culture earlier this month.

The department is also planning to reconstruct Bender Park roadway, which winds through the park to the boat launch. It’s expected that approximately 1,000 truckloads of sediment will be driven up the roadway during the dredging project, so Parks plans to wait until dredging is complete to rebuild the roadway. It’s expected roadway reconstruction will cost more than $3 million, according to county budget documents.

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