It is time for the Lawrence Loop to be completed.

LiveWell Lawrence is advocating that the 23-mile concrete trail for bikers, runners and walkers be finished. Eighteen miles of the loop around the city are done. Finishing the project will require city and outside funding.

There is ample community support for the trail system and the city should make it a top priority.

Healthy Built Environment, a sub-group of LiveWell Lawrence, is encouraging the city to construct at least one of the remaining segments of the loop. The incomplete segments in the path include three major gaps: a connection between Sandra J. Shaw Trail near Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Peterson Road; a connection between Queens Road and Kasold Drive in northwestern Lawrence; and a 1-mile connection between where the trail leaves off near Hobbs Park in East Lawrence and the Burcham Park Trail. The loop also lacks connector trails linking the trail to neighborhoods throughout the city.

“This is a really unique resource,” said Jeff Severin, chair of Healthy Built Environment, a work group of the LiveWell Lawrence coalition. “There aren’t a lot of communities that have this type of trail system, and we’re so close to having it completed that we felt like it was something we could really get behind and really try to identify ways to get it completed.”

In a survey last year by the Parks and Recreation Department, 80 percent of respondents said city trails and pathways were the most important amenity provided by the department. When asked to identify the most important improvements to existing facilities, completing the loop and adding connector trails was the top response, picked by 64 percent.

Completing the loop is part of the city’s five-year capital improvement plan and the Parks and Recreation Department’s master plan, but unless the City Commission allocates funding for the project, it won’t happen. The only portion allocated in the CIP for 2017 is a small segment connecting 29th Street to the Haskell Indian Nations University trail, which is estimated to cost $75,000.

Though additional segments of the loop are estimated at $300,000 each, exact routes are not finalized, and cost will depend on the terrain and right-of-way easements. State and federal grants have been used to construct portions of the trail and will be key to future sections.

The loop is a valuable Lawrence amenity. A push by the city and LiveWell Lawrence to get the loop completed is the right thing to do.