Construction of a 2 1/2- mile extension of Muskogee’s Centennial Trail could be finished by Labor Day, though runners already are using the trail.

Muskogee Parks and Recreation Director Mark Wilkerson said contractors need to work on handicapped access, crossing signs and other final touches before the trail extension is finished. The extension runs from U.S. 69 to North Main Street, ending south of Douglas Street.

“We’re working very hard to get it done,” said Andrew Long, project director with Glover Construction.

Long said he couldn’t set a date of completion, but does expect it to be done by early September.

Wilkerson said he knows people are already running and riding bicycles on the extension, even though it is not complete.

This weekend, for example, users might have to dodge squares of wet concrete. Subcontractors with Philpott Concrete Construction worked on concrete frames at trail crossings Friday and expect to pour concrete Saturday.

The trail crosses 11th Street north of Smokehouse Bob’s Bar-B-Que. Restaurant owner Robert Newton said he wonders why the city does not have parking spaces near some of the trail crossings. He said the trail also should have mile markers “so people know how far they’ve walked.”

Wilkerson said there are no plans for additional trail parking. People can park at Love-Hatbox Sports Complex, 34th and Arline streets, or the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, 401 S. Third St. He said it would be hard for the city to install mile markers because people start on the trail at different places. Running clubs have made mile markers, he said.

The extension will make the entire Centennial Trail 8 miles, one way, Wilkerson said. The existing trail begins at Fourth and Elgin streets and winds around Love-Hatbox Sports Complex. It crosses Okmulgee Avenue near 40th Street and goes under U.S. 69 north of Parkview Boulevard, following an abandoned rail line to Main Street, Wilkerson said.

With the exception of the original Centennial Trail around the sports complex, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation has funded 80 percent of the trail’s construction with the city matching the remaining 20 percent.

Wilkerson said an application to fund a fifth phase of the trail is pending with ODOT. The fifth phase would take the trail from Main Street, across Shawnee Bypass to an abandoned Arkansas River Bridge beside York Street.

Reach Cathy Spaulding at (918) 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogephoenix.com.