The Berrien County Board of Commissioners has formally approved a project agreement for the next phase of the Red Arrow Highway Linear Trail.

At their regular meeting Thursday, commissioners signed off on the plan to build the trail along the road between Stevensville and Bridgman next year. The county was awarded a nearly $3.1 million grant from the state for the work. County Administrator Brian Dissette tells us this will go right along with the ongoing reconstruction of Red Arrow Highway.

“We are doing pavement right now on Red Arrow,” Dissette said. “Part of that project then leads to next year’s trail project. So this is the process of lining up the grants and then we implement and I would anticipate sometime during the 2026 construction season.”

The more than $3 million Transportation Alternative Program grant will require a roughly $700,000 match, which is coming from other grants and donations.

Dissette says the Red Arrow Trail has been a popular idea.

“The road department, working with Southwest Michigan Planning Commission, has really done a good job putting together the capital stack. So, this is well over a decade’s worth of work and they continue to slowly implement the grant making process, the construction, and then the maintenance agreements.”

The county applied for the grant on behalf of the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission, and maintenance of the trail, when finished, will be the responsibility of the municipalities it passes through.

The Berrien County Road Department is currently rebuilding Red Arrow Highway between the Bridgman city limits and about 1,000 feet south of the Cook nuclear power plant. Next year, it’ll reconstruct the road from Stevensville to the Cook plant, and that’s when the trail work will be done.