The Coal Line Trail

Phases opened 2022 and 2024; Phase III to build in 2027

The coal road: The Coal Line Trail runs on the railroad that fed the colleges' boilers. The trail follows the old Notre Dame & Western coal line — the short railroad, later Norfolk Southern's, that hauled coal to the Holy Cross institutions — from Lincoln Way West across the St. Joseph River to SR 933, a mile and a half in all by the city's engineering plans, which fix the segments precisely: Phase I about 4,000 feet from Lincolnway West to Riverside Drive, Phase II about 3,500 feet from Riverside Drive to the East Bank Trail, net trail length 1.500 miles. The Indiana Department of Transportation's own newsletter tells the building of it: the 0.75-mile first phase opened in September 2022, running from Lincoln Way West at Wilber Street along the old railroad bed behind Holy Cross School and the southeast edge of Muessel Grove Park to the southern end of the Riverside Trail at Angela Boulevard, with INDOT funding eighty percent of the two-phase project; the second phase would convert the abandoned railroad bridge over the river at Angela into a pedestrian bridge and carry the trail behind the homes along Angela Boulevard to the East Bank Trail at the edge of Holy Cross College and the southwest edge of the Notre Dame golf course — a conversion, the newsletter notes, "on the drawing board since 2010."

The bridge phase has its own city paper. The engineering record for Phase IIB (Des #2200199) describes a 400-foot improvement: it "connects the Riverside Trail on the west side of the St. Joseph River, traverses east on the former 1926 railroad bridge over the river, and connects to Coal Line Trail Phase II — a new 12-foot-wide HMA shared-use path along the old rail corridor from North Shore Drive to Angela Boulevard where it completes the linkage with East Bank Trail." The city's news page of 7 June 2023 announced construction beginning the next day on the extension "from the Angela Bridge over the St. Joseph River to State Road 933," with the bridge's own construction under way since January and completion expected by May 2024; the Tribune's later account confirms the second phase "took the trail across the river on a new pedestrian bridge all the way to Indiana 933 in 2024." The completed trail carries a name: the Stephen J. Luecke Coal Line Trail, for the mayor under whom the riverwalk era was built. One further published figure stands against the plans' arithmetic and is printed with it: the Michiana Area Council of Governments' obligated-projects listing carries "Coal Line Trail Phase 2 from Riverside Dr to Angela Blvd" at 1.14 miles — a funding document's length for a phase the engineering plans measure at about 3,500 feet plus the bridge; the two counts are not reconciled here.

The trail is not finished growing. Phase III leaves the railroad: the city's project page (published 11 March 2026) describes a shared-use trail on the west side of College Street between Linden Avenue and Lincoln Way West — an eleven-foot concrete path, 0.44 of a mile by INDOT's July 2026 request for proposals (Des #2201235; estimated construction $2,495,200) — connecting the trail to the Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Center at 1522 Linden Avenue, a priority of the Kennedy Park Neighborhood Plan, with just over $2 million in federal CMAQ construction funds awarded and the city's River West bond covering the local share. The phase's timetable has moved in the telling, and the movement is printed: design documents of 2023 contemplated construction as early as 2025; the city's current page states construction is tentatively planned to begin in spring 2027, complete later that year. As this section is written, Phases I and II stand built and open; Phase III stands designed, funded, and unbuilt.

Sources:

1. South Bend Venues Parks & Arts, Coal Line Trail project page (the corridor, the phase geography, the future Cherry Street phase outside the current scope).
2. INDOT, Inside INDOT, November 2022 (the 1½-mile corridor, the first phase's September 2022 opening and course, the second phase's bridge and course, the eighty-percent funding, the 2010 drawing-board date).
3. City of South Bend Board of Public Works record, Opening of Proposals — Coal Line Trail Phase IIB (Lochmueller Group, 23 August 2022) (the 400-foot bridge improvement, the former 1926 railroad bridge, the twelve-foot path, the East Bank linkage).
4. City of South Bend news, 7 June 2023, "Construction Set to Begin on Next Phase of Coal Line Trail" (the June 2023 construction start, the January bridge start, the May 2024 expectation).
5. South Bend Tribune, July 2026 (Phase I completed 2022; Phase II across the river to Indiana 933 in 2024; the trail's full name).
6. City of South Bend engineering plan set, Coal Line Trail Stage 2 plans (Phase I ≈4,000 ft; Phase II ≈3,500 ft; net length 1.500 mi).
7. Michiana Area Council of Governments, SFY 2025 Annual Listing of Obligated Projects (Phase 2 listed at 1.14 miles, Riverside Dr to Angela Blvd — printed as a conflict).
8. City of South Bend, Coal Line Trail Project — Phase III (College Street), together.southbendin.gov, page published 11 March 2026 (the scope, the Dream Center connection, the spring-2027 construction); INDOT RFP, posted 10 July 2026 (the 0.44-mile length, the cost estimate, Des #2201235); DLZ Indiana proposal in the city's Board of Public Works record (the CMAQ award of just over $2 million; the 3,200-foot anticipated length); South Bend Redevelopment Commission record, 13 June 2023 ($250,000 Phase III design approval).