Work is under way to bring the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail into downtown Akron.

The $2.75 million project will extend the popular trail about 2,000 feet and will require a 275-foot bridge over the Akron Innerbelt, said Mike Teodecki of the city's engineering bureau.

The prefabricated steel bridge will be 14 feet wide and as high as 16 feet.

The new leg is aimed primarily at getting bicyclists around downtown on the trail, which is to stretch from Cleveland through Akron to New Philadelphia.

The work by Kenmore Construction Co. began July 16 and is to be completed in August 2008.

Partners on financing the project are the Akron-based Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, the city, the National Park Service and Metro Parks, Serving Summit County.

The northern terminus of the new trail section is where the trail now ends near Lock 10 off Beech Street in Cascade Locks Park just north of downtown.

At that point, pedestrians are directed 675 feet along Beech Street to North Howard Street and then along 2,845 feet of city sidewalks to Lock 3 Park on South Main Street, where the trail continues to the south.

But officials devised the new bicycle route into downtown because they wanted to avoid bicyclists pedaling on downtown sidewalks.

The southern terminus of the new leg is at Lock 2 Park behind Canal Park stadium off South Main Street.

Plans call for the extending the new trail along the western edge of the Innerbelt (state Route 59, also known as Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway) from Cascade Locks Park.

It would run under West Market Street to the south and parallel to Rand Avenue. The new bridge would then carry bicyclists across the highway to Quaker Street on the downtown side of the highway.

The bridge is to connect the soon-to-be-built trail with analready-completed trail segment at Quaker Street.

The section, costing about $810,000, runs south on sidewalks on Quaker, West Bowery and Water streets to West State Street. It then goes off-road into Lock 2 Park, with a newly installed bridge to carry trail users across the canal.

The completed trail continues south from Lock 2 Park past West Exchange and West Cedar streets. That section of trail ends near West Bartges Street near Canal Place, although work is under way to get the trail under Bartges. It will then be extended south to Summit Lake and Manchester Road.

The Towpath Trail is seen as a major attraction along the developing Ohio & Erie Canal National Heritage Canalway, which stretches from Cleveland through Akron and Canton to New Philadelphia.

Getting the new trail across the Innerbelt and into downtown Akron will be a major accomplishment, said Dan Rice of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, a grass-roots group working on the trail and the federal historic corridor.

''It's real exciting . . . because this is an especially critical section, and getting it done will be a big, big step,'' he said.