Two funding decisions about the Route 390 Trail came out three weeks apart this fall. On September 22, Monroe County announced it was paying for a study to extend the trail south from Ridgeway Avenue toward the Erie Canal. On October 14, New York State released its list of Transportation Alternatives Program awards, and a full rebuild of the trail's original miles through Greece wasn't on it. So the trail's future got money. The stretch between West Ridge Road and Janes Road, the part with the bumps, still has none.
These are two different problems with very different price tags. Each one goes after a different pool of public money, which is why one moved forward this fall and the other did not.
Two applications, two answers
The Town laid out both requests in its Summer 2026 newsletter. For the original trail, Greece applied to the state's Transportation Alternatives Program, known as TAP, to design and fully rebuild it. It also asked NYS Parks for more money, hoping to cover the whole project, which the Town estimated at nearly $10 million. Separately, Greece teamed up with the City of Rochester to ask Monroe County's Community Climate Action Fund for a feasibility study. That study would look at extending the trail from Ridgeway Avenue to the Erie Canalway Trail.
Here is where each one stands as of mid-October 2026:
| Original trail rebuild | Ridgeway-to-Canal study | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Full reconstruction from the Lake Ontario State Parkway to West Ridge Road | Planning study from Ridgeway Ave and Latona Rd to the Erie Canal and Empire State Trail |
| Estimated cost | Nearly $10 million | $60,000 |
| Funding sought | NYS TAP plus NYS Parks | Monroe County Community Climate Action Fund |
| Status | Not on the October 14 TAP award list | Awarded September 22 |
The October 14 list doesn't say Greece's application was rejected. It just names the winners. In the Finger Lakes region, $9.5 million went to four projects: sidewalks in Geneseo, Newark and Attica, plus $1.4 million for the Town of Brighton to rehabilitate part of the Lehigh Valley Trail and add new signs. The NYS Parks request is still unresolved. That grant cycle closed on July 31.
What $60,000 buys, and why it was the biggest award on the list
The county program is small on purpose. One town can get up to $10,000 in matching funds. Towns that apply together can get up to $15,000 each. Greece and Rochester applied together and got $30,000 from the county, the most a two-municipality application could receive. They match it with $30,000 of their own, for a $60,000 study.
That made the 390 Trail study the largest county award among the nine announced. Most of the others got $10,000 or less. Penfield's is an EV charger at the Clark House, and Perinton's will turn turf at the Garnsey Arboretum into low-mow grassland with birdwatching trails.
The study will look at the route from the trail's current southern end at Ridgeway Avenue and Latona Road to the Erie Canal and the Empire State Trail in Rochester. According to the Town, a finished study would put Greece and the City in a position to go after state or federal money to build that last section. Construction grants come after that groundwork.
Why the original miles can't simply be repaved
The trail most Greece residents know was built in 1980, along with the Route 390 expressway, which was then called the "Rochester Outer Loop." The original section between West Ridge Road and Janes Road measured about 4.7 miles in the Town's 2021 study. The road crossings along that stretch, south to north, are:
- West Ridge Road
- Maiden Lane
- Vintage Lane, with a signal
- English Road, next to Basil Marella Park
- Latta Road, with a signal
- Janes Road, where the study lists a parking area
That 2021 Route 390 Trail Restoration Study explains why a $10 million figure makes sense for a path that runs only a few miles. It found pavement failure along about 30 percent of the trail. Tree roots cause most of it, in the worst places pushing up "heaved fissures" that "abruptly rise from the pavement and present a hazard to trail users." The study also concluded:
The pavement surface is not a suitable candidate for milling and overlay due to the thinness of the asphalt layer and other factors relating to construction process.
The damage comes from below the surface, in the base and subgrade layers, and that material has to come out before any new surface goes on. That's why the study said any major repair should be treated as a full reconstruction. It also found the trail's 8-foot width too narrow for walkers, runners, cyclists and children to share safely. A rebuild would mean redesigning the trail. Fresh blacktop over the old path wouldn't fix it.
The study is five years old, but the problem hasn't gone away. Reviewers on TrailLink in July and September 2026 described noticeable bumps and root heaves. This summer the Town wrote that regular maintenance "is no longer enough to keep it in prime condition."
The study also pointed out what makes the trail worth rebuilding. It runs past old-growth woodland, meadows and creek valleys, plus "the subtle topographic remnants of long removed fruit orchards." It crosses Round Pond Creek on a shared bridge and runs through Basil Marella Park.
The price tag outgrew any one grant program
The Town asked two state agencies for help because of how TAP works. TAP awards run from $500,000 to $7 million per project. The state covers up to 80 percent of eligible costs, and the town has to put in at least 20 percent. A project estimated at nearly $10 million goes past that cap. The Town said it asked NYS Parks for money "in hopes of covering the entire cost."
Competition was tight. The state's whole October announcement came to just over $97 million for 35 projects across New York, and $16.5 million of it went to trails and shared-use paths.
The schedule depends on the money, and the Town said so directly. "If the grants are awarded, engineering could be underway this winter for a possible construction start in early 2028." With no TAP award announced, that winter engineering start depends on the Parks request or on later grant rounds. The Town Board's October 15 agenda had no item about the trail.
The Town's role has also changed. When the 2022 extension opened, Greece's supervisor at the time, William D. Reilich, said in the NYSDOT completion announcement that he hoped a feasibility study would "position them," meaning the state Department of Transportation, "to take the lead on that as a capital project." By 2026, Greece was filing the grant applications itself. The newsletter calls this "a new commitment on the part of Town leaders" to bring the original trail "back to its former grandeur."
The south end is where the trail keeps growing
This fall's split fits a longer pattern. The newest pieces of the 390 Trail keep getting added at the south end. In 2022, the state Department of Transportation finished a $1.6 million, 1.2-mile extension from the old end at Route 104 to Ridgeway Avenue, connecting it to Rochester's Eastman Trail. The Town credits U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer with securing that funding. Kodak let the project use parts of its property to finish the route near Eastman Business Park.
That section came with seating the original miles don't have. There are new benches at Ridgeway Avenue and Latona Road, curb ramps at the Latona Road and Kodak Park crossing, and large stones along Paddy Creek Circle placed as a natural seating area. Paddy Creek Circle also has a new place to stop. The Democrat and Chronicle reported in August that Jeremiah's Tavern had opened its fourth location at 300 Paddy Creek Circle, in the former Silo Brunch Bar space. The restaurant lists hours of 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
With the extension, the state describes the full route as more than six miles, from the Lake Ontario State Parkway Trail in the north down to Ridgeway Avenue. From there it connects to a wider network. The Lake Ontario State Parkway Trail runs 2.7 miles toward Charlotte. The Eastman Trail is a 1.1-mile widened sidewalk along Ridgeway Avenue from Latona Road to Mount Read Boulevard. The 24-mile Genesee Riverway Trail and the Erie Canalway Trail are beyond that. The new $60,000 study is meant to plan the missing link to that canal network.
The Town's trails page has trail maps, and Greece Parks and Recreation asks residents to report anything blocking the path. The Town's Department of Planning and Economic Development, reachable at (585) 723-2356, is the office handling the reconstruction effort.
If you ride or walk the 390 Trail and want to talk about how projects like this shape everyday life in Greece, I'd be glad to hear from you. Lalla Fitzpatrick follows the local projects that matter to the people who live here, from trail funding to new spots along the route. Let's Connect.
