Since most of our route across this Nation will take place on back roads, especially once its travelers move between America’s more densely populated cities and towns, NBG Mile Markers will mark the way. Set at one-mile increments, these will let cyclists know where they stand on our route. To find out what services, attractions and points of interest are close by, all they will have to do is use their phones to key in the mile marker in question.

In 1928, the Lincoln Highway people, commissioned Boy Scout troops to place 3,000 markers along every mile of America’s first coast-to-coast road (2,436 markers were actually placed). 220 pounds of concrete, reinforced with steel rebar, they were built as a memory to Abraham Lincoln. A rectangular head on top of a hexagonal shaped post, the markers featured the Lincoln Highway logo, a bronze medallion and arrows to indicate the route of the memorial highway.

Besides marking the way, NBG Mile Markers will also provide the National Bicycle Greenway with a revenue stream (discussed below and in our NBG financials). And a way to make sure these passages are kept tidy. At 10-mile increments, along the roadside, these markers will change from a nondescript 2-foot tall, black and green metal post with a number on it, to a 4-foot tall concrete pillar that bears a sponsor logo.

Our first leg  will travel through a mix of bike paths and bypassed US highways in Indiana on  USBR 35 (United States Bicycle Route System). This corridor was completed for bicyclists in 2015 (AASHTO approved it for the Indiana Dept of Transportation and Adventure Cycling).  Visit Indy, the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Bureau, had begun to promote it when COVID-19 hit. Toward that end, we will put the job of designing the markers and then manufacture, permitting and placement out to landscape designers for bid. We look forward to being able to circulate a document that includes handsome graphic images for what these posts can look like as well as renderings that reflect the enhancements and upgrades that can associate with them.

Once the Request for Proposal that NBG Director, Martin Krieg, will generate comes back to us with hard numbers for marker placement, we will enter a fundraising campaign. To help us generate money, everything will be on the table from NBG membership drives to corporate sponsorships, checkout charity, NBG Day cash register sales, and even crowd funding initiatives (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, GoFundMe, etc). 

Once posts do get placed, besides serving as markers for section upgrades/enhancements, they will also become revenue generating tools. It will be at this level, that as each logo for them gets sold, a majority percentage will be earmarked for building out the Greenway that will result.

Marking Indy to Chicago

Mile Marker Administration

An important part of the Indianapolis main NBG office, one person full time will augment, qualify and track each of our markers. This person will keep current the cross referencing a team will initially qualify  each marker with. It is here that each will have been outfitted with data points so users can look them up on their phones to see where they are at, and where services, landmarks and points of interest are in relation to each one. Since they will be equipped with solar powered cameras, damage or vandalism will be easy to spot and rectify from the home office.

Marker Fabrication, Placement & Security

2,835 Mile Markers plain (3,150 total miles minus 315 logos)
Graphic Design
Fabrication Design
Manufacture
$125/unit (2,835)                                                                   $354,475

315 Mile Markers (logo)
Graphic Design (for replaceable vinyl shrink wrap)
Fabrication Design
Materials
4’x4’ Site Retention (Buy, Rent, Lease per jurisdiction parameters)
Manufacture
$3,000/unit (315)                                                                 $945,000

Site prep/installation (all 315 logo markers)
Emergency phone (where applicable)
Security camera (where applicable)
Solar cell (where applicable)
$11,000/site (315)                                                              $3,465,000
Misc                                                                                            $235,525

Total                                                                                        $5,000,000

Coast to Coast Marker Schedule

For the purposes of conversation, we feel the job of determining the placements for our mile markers from coast to coast can be done per this schedule –

                          Beg              No. ¹      No.       
Leg                   Const      Markers  Poles  Notes
Indy-C’go         4/23       18            162      On USBR 35 w/Mayors’ Ride
Indy-Cincy       8/24       11             99       Starts NY St/Pennsy Trail
Cincy-Pgh        4/25       60            540
C’go-SF             5/26      226        2034
Total                                 315        2835

¹  One logo marker every 10 miles