B&O Rail Trail, Hendricks & Marion Counties, Indiana

The B&O Rail Trail is a decades‑long, community‑led effort to convert a former CSX railroad corridor into a regional multi‑use trail and linear park serving West Central Indiana. Storrow Kinsella Associates has worked alongside the B&O Trail Association (BOTA) since 1996, providing long‑range corridor planning, environmental studies, trail and amenity design, and experiential graphics—supporting the realization of a vision that predates widespread understanding of the civic, economic, and health value of trail systems.

BOTA, an independent nonprofit volunteer organization, emerged as an early leader in the Rails‑to‑Trails movement. Its founding members, Diana Virgil and Jeff Smallwood, were pioneers in navigating complex legal, funding, and land‑ownership challenges to secure rail corridors for public use. Through sustained leadership, strategic persistence, and community engagement, the Association built local trust, leveraged scarce early funding, and laid the groundwork for long‑term success.

A Regional System with Long‑Term Reach

The Hendricks County segment of the B&O Rail Trail currently includes more than six miles of open, paved trail, progressing westward from the Marion County line at Raceway Road to County Road 500 East near the historic rail hamlet of Tilden. Long‑term plans extend the trail west through Putnam and Parke Counties to Montezuma, Indiana, at the Illinois state line. Planned eastern connections through Speedway and Indianapolis will link the trail to the Indianapolis Greenways network, Eagle Creek Trail, White River Trail, and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.

When complete, the B&O Rail Trail will form a critical segment of a proposed 65‑mile regional trail corridor, serving more than 44,000 households within one mile of the trail and adding over 250 acres of accessible green space for pedestrians, cyclists, and equestrians.

Design as Stewardship

The trail functions as a linear park and an extension of the public commons for the neighborhoods it serves. SKA’s design approach integrates places to pause and gather along the corridor—including the Diane Vonnegut Memorial Garden, the Green Street Trailhead and Shelter, mural‑enhanced tunnel nodes, and the signature weathering‑steel truss bridge spanning White Lick Creek.

Experiential graphics, wayfinding, and interpretive elements draw inspiration from historic Baltimore & Ohio Railroad imagery, reinforcing a clear identity while providing practical wayfinding, emergency reference points, and fitness intervals. Native plantings, wildflower edges, and naturalized landscapes enhance ecological function and seasonal interest while strengthening the corridor’s sense of place.

Implementation Through Strategic Leadership

Planning for the overall corridor has supported multiple successful grant proposals, locally matched by municipal, regional, philanthropic, and private partners. Notably, the acquisition of a completed trail segment by the Town of Brownsburg enabled a critical funding match for federal‑aid transportation funds, allowing the next phase of construction to proceed with assistance from the Hendricks County Engineering Department.

In 2021, BOTA, with major philanthropic and institutional support, was awarded $4.6 million through Indiana’s Next Level Trails program, administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Over time, SKA’s project‑centered grant strategy has helped secure more than $10 million in funding for the B&O Rail Trail.

The trail was designated a Priority Visionary Trail in the Indiana State Trails, Greenways & Bikeways Plan, affirming its long‑term regional importance.

Impact

The B&O Rail Trail has become a highly valued community asset, enhancing quality of life, expanding recreational access, and increasing the value and connectivity of adjacent neighborhoods. As development along the corridor matures, the trail is expected to continue its evolution from a primarily recreational amenity into a broader mobility and connectivity resource—supporting daily travel, regional linkages, and sustainable growth.

Strategies

Planning of the overall corridor has supported multiple, successful grant proposals that in turn have been locally matched by regional and local partners. Recent purchase of a constructed trail segment by the Town of Brownsburg to add to its park and trail network, is an example of leveraging. The purchase of the trail section became a key part of the required match for federal-aid transportation funds, allowing BOTA, with assistance from the Hendricks County Engineering Department, to proceed into the next phase of construction. The key strategy however, has been the long term passionate commitment by the B&O Trail Association leadership to achieve this vision in the early 1990s when few people fully understood the value trails bring to a community and its quality of life.

Places

The trail is a linear park and an extension of the commons of the many neighborhoods it touches. Specific “places to pause” were designed into the corridor including the Diane Vonnegut Memorial Garden, The Ronald Reagan Parkway tunnel nodes and murals, the Green Street Trailhead & Shelter, and the White Lick Creek Bridge. Naturalized landscape edges and experiential graphics create a continuum of interest.

Connections

When completed, the Hendricks County section will be nineteen and one-half miles long, and will be a key component of the proposed 65-mile-long trail from Indianapolis to Montezuma, Indiana. Land acquisition is complete for the 19-mile corridor in Hendricks County with only about one-half mile left to purchase (as of January 2018). Future extensions will link to the Indianapolis Greenways network at Speedway, Eagle Creek Trail, White River Trail and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. The Hendricks County section has generated multiple local trail connections expanding its reach and connectivity.

Experiential Elements

The White Lick Creek Bridge offers a spatial opening of the corridor, twenty-eight feet above the creek high water mark. Overall length is 135-feet. Cantilevered overlooks are pausing places with spectacular views up and down the river. Wayfinding and interpretive signage elements of a consistent graphic format reflective of the historic railroad provide repetitive character elements that differentiate the trail from its intersecting counterparts. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad traversed this area at a time when agriculture dominated the landscape, industry was concentrated in major rail hubs and transport of agricultural product and manufactured goods was largely by rail. To help capture that history, B&O Trail mile markers, directional, and informational signs derive from historic B&O Railroad imagery. A uniform mileage marker system has been developed that will provide locational information for emergency services and provide fitness intervals for trail users. The trail crossing of busy Green Street in Brownsburg is one of the first instances of a Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon (HAWK) signaling system being installed on what was then an INDOT controlled highway, with approval being based on a rigorous warrant process to justify use of what was then a novel system. Wildflower edges and native plantings add detail and seasonal interest to the corridor’s existing natural habitat.

Impact

The trail is very popular with a growing population within walking-cycling range of the corridor, and has clearly added value to adjacent neighborhoods. Once adjacent development reaches equilibrium it is expected to move beyond recreational use to serve broader community connectivity as well. Adjacent communities see it as a very effective way to efficiently expand their open space resources for their burgeoning populations.

This work was guided by long-range planning considerations, interagency coordination, and long-term stewardship needs.

TRAIL PARTNERS

Department of Natural Resources
Assisted BOTA with property acquisition funding and Phase 1 Trail construction.

Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT)
Provided BOTA funding through multiple phases of construction and the majority of funds needed for land acquisition.

Hendricks County Commissioners
Assisted BOTA with administering INDOT funds and technical support with trail design and construction.