A new one-third-mile trail cut into a steep West Park hillside is finally giving Kamm's Corners residents a safe way to walk into Rocky River Reservation, something the neighborhood has lacked for generations. Cleveland Metroparks and its partners cut the ribbon on the Old Lorain Connector Tuesday morning near Bradgate Avenue and Riveredge Road, officially opening a $2.7 million project that took years of planning, engineering, and negotiation to pull off.
The connector begins on Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital property near Riveredge Road and Bradgate Avenue and wraps around a Cleveland Clinic employee parking garage before dropping 112 feet down the ravine to meet Old Lorain Road roughly halfway down the hill, according to Cleveland.com. That routing was no accident — the trail was engineered specifically to avoid the steep, winding stretch of Old Lorain Road, a narrow 19th-century roadway with frequent erosion, broken pavement, and no sidewalks, as documented by The West Park Times.
Cleveland Metroparks Executive Director Brian Zimmerman called the opening a long-awaited celebration of bringing the connection vision into reality, per the Cleveland.com report. The trail now gives Kamm's Corners direct walking access to Rocky River Metropark and feeds straight into the Emerald Necklace Trail, a 33-mile paved path running from Detroit Avenue in Lakewood through the reservation toward Cuyahoga Valley National Park, according to West Park Kamm's Neighborhood Development.
A Century-Old Vision, Finally Built
The project's roots trace back further than most West Siders probably realize. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. visited the Cleveland area in 1915 and 1916 and envisioned an attractive approach to what would become the Metroparks system more than a century ago, per the Cleveland.com report. Olmsted Jr. and engineer William A. Stinchcomb were jointly hired by the Cuyahoga County Park Board in 1915 to draft a comprehensive countywide park plan, laying the groundwork for Ohio's first metropolitan park district, established in 1917 — with Stinchcomb later serving as the park district's first director from 1921 to 1957, according to The Cultural Landscape Foundation.
The more recent push began when Cleveland Metroparks formally identified Old Lorain Road as a priority area needing safer pedestrian alternatives during its 2017–2018 Master Plan update, which led Cleveland City Council to fund an initial $50,000 engineering study in 2020, the same West Park Times report notes. Ward 17 Councilman Charles Slife and local development officials pushed the effort forward, and Slife said Kamm's Corners residents previously had almost no pedestrian access to Rocky River Metropark because of the steep cliffs separating the neighborhood from the valley floor, according to Cleveland.com.
Untangling Land, Money and a Hospital Parking Garage
Because the trail wraps directly around the Fairview Hospital employee parking garage on steep slope terrain, getting it built required cooperation across multiple agencies with competing interests. In November 2023, the Cleveland Metroparks Board of Park Commissioners authorized a tri-party Project Development Agreement among the park district, West Park Kamm's Neighborhood Development, and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, according to meeting minutes from the Cleveland Metroparks Board of Park Commissioners. The finished project was completed in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic, West Park Kamm's Neighborhood Development, and both county and city government, per Cleveland.com.
Financing came together through matching public dollars. Cuyahoga County Council awarded $750,000 in American Rescue Plan Act community grant funding from District 2 to help cover construction costs, according to a Cuyahoga County announcement. Cleveland City Council matched that in late 2024 with emergency legislation, Ordinance 1048-2024, authorizing $750,000 in municipal capital funds and approving temporary easement agreements with the park district, per Cleveland City Council legislative records. The full project ultimately cost $2.7 million, according to Cleveland.com's reporting.
Engineering a Path Down a 112-Foot Drop
Building a trail down that kind of grade took specialized design work. The multipurpose path covers approximately 1,750 linear feet and was engineered to safely negotiate the steep drop along the ravine hillside, with consulting firm Michael Baker International and contractor Nerone & Sons executing the slope design, per West Park Kamm's Neighborhood Development. County officials project the connector will serve approximately 75,000 visitors annually and provide immediate, direct park access to more than 5,000 nearby West Park residents.
Not everyone was thrilled about how the trail got built. Local cycling and environmental advocates raised concerns during construction about the removal of mature trees along the hillside behind the hospital complex to carve out the paved path, according to Bike Cleveland. The tree clearing was necessary to meet standard grade requirements for multi-use trail accessibility, though the debate remained limited even as community response to the trail overall has been largely positive.
What It Means for Kamm's Corners
For residents like River Dillon, the payoff is immediate and personal. Dillon said the connector makes it easier for him to reach the area for fishing, according to Cleveland.com's reporting. It's a small but telling example of how a brief stretch of pavement — just one-third of a mile — can unlock an entire 33-mile regional trail network for a neighborhood that had been effectively walled off from it.
The Old Lorain Connector opening comes amid a broader wave of trail investment across Cuyahoga County. Cleveland Metroparks is also working on a Solon-to-Chagrin Falls rail-trail link expected by 2027, part of a pattern of expanding active-transportation connections throughout the park system. In West Park itself, the trail's debut lands alongside other signs of neighborhood momentum, from new commercial activity in Kamm's Corners to the return of the Cleveland GardenWalk earlier this summer.
