The state’s transportation department is planning a $2.5 million project to extend a popular paved pedestrian and bicycle trail in Ellsworth to the 96-mile Down East Sunrise Trail.
Ellsworth’s 1.3 mile multi-use trail, running parallel to State Street between Lakes Lane and Birch Avenue, is set to be connected to the lengthy Down East Sunrise Trail, which extends from the city’s High Street corridor to Perry, on the eastern edge of Washington County.
The project is part of Maine’s Department of Transportation’s three-year infrastructure plan, which involves a $4.5 billion investment in transportation improvements across the state.
Construction of the connector trail in Ellsworth is slated to begin in the summer of 2028.
Once complete, the trail will offer walkers and cyclists more than 2 miles of paved path between Lakes Lane, near North Street, and the end of the state owned trail, located by the Comfort Inn on High Street.
Plans to link the two trails have been underway for years: Ellsworth partnered with the state’s transportation department in 2019 to complete a feasibility study and later secured state and federal funding for the project’s engineering and design.
But after determining the trail would be too expensive to complete under city management, Ellsworth handed the plans over to the state’s transportation department in early December 2025, according to Roddy Ehrlenbach, the city’s parks and recreation director.
The project is estimated to cost $2,510,000, according to Andrew Gobeil, communications director for the state’s transportation department.
The paved trail extension, which will be 10-foot wide with gravel shoulders and accessible crosswalks, will create a “continuous route through Ellsworth,” connecting the Sunrise trail to North Street, Gobeil said.
The ban on motorized vehicles on the paved local path also will apply to the new connector section, unlike the Sunrise trail that welcomes all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles.
The plan may require the trail to switch from the east side of the railroad tracks to the west side, Ehrlenbach said, but officials are still sorting out right-of-way and private property concerns.
Construction on the trail’s High Street stretch will be particularly “delicate,” Ehrlenbach said, as engineers will have to protect the active Downeast Scenic Railroad bed and a busy roadway and sidewalk.
The project’s construction is expected to be advertised in late 2027 and begin in summer 2028, though the state will complete preliminary design work this year, Gobeil said.
Ehrlenbach said the project progresses a decades-long city priority of “embracing” residents who navigate Ellsworth without a car.
In an effort to provide more pedestrian routes in the city, the state’s transportation department completed the local paved trail in 2011. Five years later, in 2016, Down East Sunrise Trail was extended from Washington Junction in the neighboring town of Hancock to High Street.
Noting that High Street is neither pedestrian nor cyclist friendly, Ehrlenbach hopes the connected trail will offer residents a safe, accessible option for navigating one of the city’s most-travelled corridors.
