The Nelson Family Heritage Crossing officially opened to the public on Friday, June 18.

The crossing is a 1,100-foot bicycle and pedestrian bridge between Heesakker Park in Little Chute and a new rail trail connection to downtown Kaukauna.

It is one of if not the longest pedestrian bicycle bridge in the state, said Ryan Van Camp, project manager for Milwaukee-based GRAEF, the engineering firm that provided feasibility studies and designs for the bridge.

"We have a lot of decking... 6 miles of decking, 250 tons of steel beams that are holding this thing up and this has all been constructed in a six-month time period and we've been planning this for 5 years," Van Camp said.

The Nelson Family Heritage Crossing broke ground in August 2020.