Omaha Riverfront Trail-North

Omaha, NE

Master Plan & Five Phases of Construction

The Back to the River Master Plan, prepared by Big Muddy, defined the route of Omaha’s Riverfront Trail from Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge south to the Missouri’s confluence with the Platte River. Big Muddy is the lead designer for the Riverfront Trail’s urban section, running 12 miles, from N.P. Dodge Park to the heart of downtown Omaha. Big Muddy’s landscape architects have provided continuity for this 20+ year project, serving as the institutional memory as public agency partners and staff changed.

Early in the design process, Big Muddy recommended that the 13 mile trail be implemented in phases, rather than built as a single project, so it could be adapted as the riverfront redeveloped. At that time Omaha’s downtown riverfront area was transforming from a working waterfront to a series of civic facilities, urban open spaces and private office and residential developments.

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Phase One runs from N.P. Dodge Park south through a US Army Corps of Engineers River Operations Center, past the primary drinking water treatment plant for metropolitan Omaha and a coal-fired power plant, before running along the top of Omaha’s flood protection levee. Phase Two continues on top of the levee, before turning south and running through an industrial park to the edge of Levi Carter Park. Phase Three follows the eastern leg of horseshoe-shaped Carter Lake, ending near the Nebraska/Iowa state line on Locust Avenue in Carter Lake, Iowa. Phase Four follows Abbott Drive from Levi Carter Park through Carter Lake Iowa and back into Omaha, ending near the Gallup Inc. campus.

A future, Fifth Phase is fully designed and will circle around the west leg of Carter Lake, providing a western loop through Levi Carter Park. While agency funding, agency partners, and agency staff have come, gone, and retired, Big Muddy’s staff and project knowledge will ensure that Omaha’s Riverfront Trail becomes the reality promised in the 1994 Back to the River Master Plan.