By the time January rolls around, a 3-mile trail connecting Lake Jackson Mounds to Lake Ella will be in its design phases.

The $900,000 project got its final go-ahead at the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency’s Feb. 28 meeting.

The Lake Jackson Greenway Project would put a mixed-use path from the north shore of the lake along North Monroe Street into Midtown using publicly-owned land and roadways.

It’s the next move in efforts to create bike and mobility friendly connections between neighborhoods and commerce and entertainment hubs over the next 20 years.

Planning and preliminary engineering of the project, which includes two other greenways projects — Lake Jackson South Greenway and the Lake Ella Connector — will conclude near the end of 2019, according to Blueprint Director Autumn Calder.

A year of construction is expected to start in early 2022.

From the Lake Jackson Mounds State Park, a 10-foot wide trail will connect to Okeeheepkee Prairie County Park and the Meginnis Arm Canoe Launch, where one of two trailheads will be.

The trail will cut through 42 acres owned by the Northwest Florida Water Management District and onto Lakeshore Drive, beneath Interstate 10 on an existing bridge, through an urban stream, onto Sharer Road and into a Tallahassee Fire Department station.

After connecting with Allen Road and along the north side of the Centre of Tallahassee, the path would cross behind the city-owned Trousdell Gymnastic Center, through a neighborhood between Delta Boulevard and Tharpe Street and ultimately connect with Lake Ella, where a second trailhead would be.

Improvements along the second phase of the path, form Meginnis Arm on, include 2.5 miles of paved pathway, upgrades at four street crossings, a 10-foot wide bridge behind the gymnastics center and signage.

Funding for the greenway comes from the 2020 sales tax project planning fund. It is one of five bike route and greenway projects given advanced funding for preliminary planning work, said Ben Pingree, the director of the Department of PLACE.

“It’s to make sure when 2020 comes online, we’re ready to go and we have projects in the queue,” he said.

Other pre-funded projects include the updated Leon County Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, the Capital Circle Southwest Greenway, the Thomasville Road Trail and University Greenway.

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter