A 5-mile mountain bike trail will be built at John Brown University in Siloam Spring and is expected to open next summer.
The Walton Family Foundation and Siloam Springs-based Simmons Foods are partnering to fund the $170,000 trail project, the university announced this week.
About five years ago, the university added to its grounds an approximately 1.75-mile paved trail that connects with the publicly funded Dogwood Springs Walking Trail in Siloam Springs. A 2009 university announcement stated that the Walton Family Foundation was providing about $313,000 to fund material costs for that paved trail.
The public frequents the existing trail and also will be able to use the new unpaved trail, university spokesman Johanna Musgrave said.
Preliminary plans call for a segment of the new trail to run alongside the existing pathway, she said.
"Northwest Arkansas trails are a popular and widely used transportation network," Tom Walton, a Walton Family Foundation board member, said in a statement released by the university.
The foundation has provided more than $50 million since 2000 to develop trails in the region, including approximately $8 million for soft surface trails.
Metro on 12/05/2015