The Sunflower Foundation announced it would award Lawrence 10,000 for completion of the Rock Chalk Park Trail, north and west of Rock Chalk Park and Sports Pavilion Lawrence.

The Sunflower Foundation announced it will award Lawrence a grant of up to $110,000 to build a section of the Lawrence Loop, a trail planned to someday circle the city.

The grant will be used for a trail north and west of Rock Chalk Park. The 4,130-foot section will connect the South Lawrence Trafficway Trail with the under-construction Baldwin Creek Trail, creating 15 miles of continuous concrete path, said Chris Tilden, community health director with the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department.

The health department has advocated for completion of the Lawrence Loop — envisioned to be a total 22 miles — for the past couple of years.

“This year, once the Baldwin Creek Trail is completed, this new segment at Rock Chalk Park is completed, and the SLT trail being built east of Iowa, we will almost double the amount of continuous trail around the city,” Tilden said. “It will be a great recreational path. I think it will also serve as a fairly important source of transportation to link people to priority destinations.”

The Sunflower Foundation announced it would award Lawrence 10,000 for completion of the Rock Chalk Park Trail, north and west of Rock Chalk Park and Sports Pavilion Lawrence.

The Lawrence City Commission voted in May to provide the 50 percent match for the grant, if it were awarded. The Parks and Recreation Department estimated the project would cost $275,000 total, and the Sunflower Foundation will reimburse the city up to $110,000. According to an announcement from the foundation, the grant amount depends on bids the city receives from contractors.

The remaining amount, $55,000, will come from the Kansas Department of Transportation Federal Fund Exchange Program.

To receive the grant, the city must complete the Rock Chalk Park Trail by the end of 2017.

This spring, Lawrence lost out on a $600,000 grant through KDOT to complete four small segments of the Lawrence Loop.

One of those segments was included in the capital improvement plan drafted by the city last month. As is, the plan allocates $75,000 in 2017 to build 750 linear feet of trail from 29th Street to the Haskell Rail-Trail to the South Lawrence Trafficway Trail.

Another trail project, from Lawrence Memorial Hospital to Peterson Road and North Iowa Street, is listed in the capital improvement plan as going unfunded. That project was estimated at $450,000.

After the Rock Chalk Park Trail is complete, there will also be gaps between downtown Lawrence and the Warehouse Arts District, LMH to Stonegate Park and Stonegate Park to the Baldwin Creek Trail.

Tilden said it’s likely the health department and city would continue to seek grant funding to finish the loop.

Other parts of the loop, such as the Baldwin Creek Trail, were partly financed by grant funding. For that section, the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism will reimburse the city for $320,000 of the $400,000 project.

“There are several miles to go, but I’m hopeful if we continue to work at this, at some point we’ll have a completed loop,” Tilden said. “Clearly, there’s an important link between physical activity and health, so we’re really, really happy to see a focus on — and continued development of — this trail system in the community.”