Allen County food-tax board puts $1M on Fort Wayne trail bridge still millions short

Allen County Courthouse, Fort Wayne. Photo by Derek Jensen (Tysto) / Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Allen County Courthouse, Fort Wayne. Photo by Derek Jensen (Tysto) / Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

One million dollars from Allen County's supplemental food-and-beverage tax fund is now on the table for a pedestrian bridge that was supposed to cost about $7 million and is now penciled above $12 million — with construction still stalled and City Council still holding the final contract vote.

On Thursday, Sept. 24, the Allen County & Fort Wayne Capital Improvement Board voted 7-0 to approve $1 million for the Vann Family Crossing, also called the Pufferbelly Trail Pedestrian Bridge over Coliseum Boulevard, The Journal Gazette and WPTA 21Alive reported. The board manages money from the county's supplemental food-and-beverage tax under Indiana Code for capital and economic-development projects; it also oversees the Grand Wayne Convention Center.

That $1 million does not finish the job. Journal Gazette reporting put the current estimate above $12.3 million. The Vann Family Foundation put up $5 million. The city has already approved more than $4 million. After Thursday's vote the shortfall still sits near $2.3 million, and greenways manager Dawn Ritchie told the board design trims — railing changes, dropping a staircase — might shrink that gap to about $1.3 million.

Bids blew past the $7 million story Fort Wayne sold

WPTA separately reported that while leaders once projected roughly $7 million, construction bids came in around $9.9 million to $11.2 million. The Journal Gazette said the low bid alone ran nearly $2.5 million over the engineer's estimate, and land acquisition cost $800,000 more than budgeted. September 2026 was supposed to be the start of construction; completion was pitched for the end of 2027. Officials now face a bidder's roughly 90-day window, with a contract decision needed around Thanksgiving — and that award still needs Fort Wayne City Council approval.

City PIO John Perlich called Thursday "a positive step" and said the city is hunting other pots of money so the project can move. Deputy Mayor Karl Bandemer framed the stakes around the private gift: "The big thing is we don't want to walk away from our $5 million (donation)," he told the Journal Gazette. "Somehow, we just have to figure this out." Ritchie said staff will also lean on the Northeast Indiana Strategic Development Commission and Allen County commissioners for more cash.

Diners underwrite the next million while the gap remains

The bridge is planned between Lima Road and Bob Thomas Ford, east of Lima on Coliseum Boulevard near Mission BBQ, tying together what officials say is about 130 miles of area trails and offering safer passage over one of the city's busiest roads toward Glenbrook Square. None of that sells itself as free. Restaurant and bar checks in Allen County are the dedicated revenue stream the Capital Improvement Board tapped Thursday. Trail amenity or not, diners and drinkers underwrite the next million while the city still lacks a closed budget, still owes Council a contract vote, and still needs another seven-figure patch before steel goes up.

Engage Fort Wayne's project page still lists a tentative build window from summer 2026 into fall 2027, subject to Indiana Department of Transportation permitting — a schedule already slipping on the front end. The next public checkpoints are whether Council gets a contract that fits the money on hand, and whether county and regional boards write more checks without telling diners the bill went up again.

Reporting: Journal Gazette, Sept. 24, 2026; WPTA 21Alive, Sept. 24, 2026; Allen County Capital Improvement Board overview; Engage Fort Wayne project page.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.