Ozark celebrates completion of $5.4M Chadwick Flyer Trail bridge

A few weeks after the Chadwick Flyer Trail bridge in Ozark first opened to foot and bicycle traffic, over 100 people were on-site at the newly constructed multimillion-dollar structure on May 14 to celebrate its completion.

City of Ozark officials say work on the pedestrian bridge that crosses over Highway 65 finished on time and with a price tag of roughly $5.4 million. A spring 2026 completion for the steel span bridge was targeted when a July 2025 groundbreaking ceremony was held, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. The city first opened the bridge on April 1, as finishing touches, such as angled panels and permanent railing, were tackled in subsequent weeks.

The bridge, which is near the 39-mile marker of Highway 65, is part of the Chadwick Flyer Trail, a roughly 12-mile regional trail designed for cyclists, joggers and walkers. Ozark Public Works Director Jeremy Parsons said bringing the bridge to fruition was “a tremendous challenge” as officials including from the city, Ozarks Transportation Organization and Ozark Greenways Inc. collaborated on the project.

Parsons was among several officials who spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which was followed by a short walk across the bridge for the dozens of people in attendance.

Parsons said the bridge provides “a chance to say welcome to Ozark, where we value quality of life, outdoor living, connection to our beautiful landscape, to our rivers, to our culture, to our history and to our neighbors.”

Radmacher Brothers Excavating Co. Inc. was general contractor for the project, while engineering work was by Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Inc. 

“What’s so cool about the alignment that you see behind you, this is the precise alignment of the old Chadwick Flyer,” Parsons said. “The skew in that bridge is there for a reason. It’s to pay homage to our history.”

The trail spans roughly 12 miles of the original Chadwick Flyer rail line that covered almost 17 miles from National Avenue near downtown Springfield to Ozark’s Finley River Trail. In development since 2019, the project is a collaborative effort between the city of Ozark, OTO and Ozark Greenways. A cost study completed in 2024 for part of the greenway trail project pushed the total price tag estimate to over $30 million.

The project, which Parsons said included building an additional roughly 4,000 linear feet near the overpass, totals nearly 7,000 linear feet and ties into a portion of the trail on property owned by Tracker Marine near North 21st Street.

Matching the vision
The bridge “absolutely matches the vision,” Parsons said, noting the project served as one of the most daunting components of the trail as officials had to study the feasibility and financial aspects of either going over or under the highway. He said that section of Highway 65 averages around 65,000 vehicles a day, citing Missouri Department of Transportation data.

“This was the biggest challenge on the map when we first started laying this out,” he said. “It’s like, how do you get across over 20 million cars a year? This was glaring at us when we were in the planning phases and I think we did an amazing job of saying, ‘Let’s not only accept the challenge, let’s turn it into an opportunity.’”

Ozark Mayor Don Currence said the ribbon-cutting ceremony is a celebration of a project years in the making.

“It’s so exciting to have increased new opportunities for recreation, wellness, just connectivity between our city and other cities in this area, and we are proud to celebrate this milestone,” he said.

OTO Executive Director Sara Fields said she could count at least half a dozen funding partners in the audience that have contributed toward the Chadwick Flyer Trail project.

“Our original vision was connecting communities through trails, and we didn’t know how we would reach that vision,” she said. “It took some partners to get there – partners that saw the vision for a transportation connection, for a recreation connection and for a tourism connection.”

Nearly $1.2 million for the bridge project was provided to the city of Ozark from federal American Rescue Plan Act funds via the Missouri Department of Economic Development as part of the state’s Local Tourism Asset Development program, according to past SBJ reporting. Additionally, it received funding from OTO, the city of Ozark, Christian County and Ozark Greenways, which supplied money it received from the Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s Outdoor Fund.

While MoDOT didn’t have a financial contribution, Fields said they did dedicate staff during a portion of the project in November 2025.

“They were out here overnight supervising the setting of a bridge,” she said. “They figured out how to put the parts and pieces together without negatively impacting the traveling public. It was a big deal, and they have hugely dedicated staff that helped us.”

Megan Stack, foundation and philanthropy adviser at Bass Pro Shops, was among those in attendance at the ceremony. Stack, daughter of Bass Pro founder Johnny Morris, said she’s “blown away by the dedication and hard work” of so many people on the bridge project and the speed at which it became a reality.

“Crossing 65 was this huge, unimaginable hurdle, and today we get to celebrate the completion of this project and I’m just so proud of everybody that made this happen,” she said. “It’s awesome. Everybody at Bass Pro Shops and Tracker [Marine] and all of our outfitters are thrilled to be a part of this project.”

Making an impact
The bridge and the trail will help provide a notable economic impact for the local area, said Kristen Haseltine, president and CEO of Show Me Christian County. Based on data compiled by OTO using Galloway Trail usage, she said 205,000 people are estimated to annually use the Chadwick Flyer Trail. Additionally, utilizing Katy Trail data – another rail-trail conversion in the state – she said OTO estimates sales tax generation from the trail will be $220,000 annually for the city of Ozark and Christian County. 

“We believe that the Chadwick Flyer is a signal to the business community that amazing things are happening in Christian County, and it will drive new businesses to our area,” she said. “It demonstrates what happens when a community comes together and they collaborate on the vision.”

Parsons said two more trail connections are continuing to the north and south of the bridge. Both should be complete within the next couple of months, he said. One connection near Finley Farms, which will take users under Jackson Street, is about 600 linear feet and will cost about $340,000. Another section, roughly 2,000 linear feet, has a price tag of $900,000 and connects to the Garrison Springs Community Forest.

As for when the entire 12-mile trail is complete, Parsons doesn’t believe it will be nearly as long of a wait as he originally estimated.

“I’m hoping within the next five years,” he said. “That’s aggressive. But when I first looked at this bridge and the possibility here in my mind, I thought it was going to be 20, maybe 30 years, and the community came together.”