The section of the Olentangy Trail near the Ohio State University campus, which was closed for over a year, reopened to cyclists and pedestrians this week.

Numerous cyclists and joggers were out Wednesday enjoying the reopened Olentangy Trail, which stretches south of Lane Avenue to 12th Avenue. The trail was closed during a $68 million project to mitigate the risk of flooding on campus during extreme storms. Ohio State also continued work on a new parking lot for nearby Ohio Stadium.

Mike Demko was biking south and had just discovered the trail was reopened, and he was pretty candid about what he thought about the 15-month detour.

“It sucked. It took me out of my routine. That’s why I like this much better. It’s just a nice, relaxing drive. Off the highway. Now it’s just constant. No more traffic lights or anything like that,” said Demko.

The detour took people over traffic on Woody Hayes Drive and right along the east side of Ohio Stadium and the adjacent sports fields, rejoining the path at 12th Avenue next to the construction site for the new Wexner Medical Center Tower.

Demko said he rides the trail three to four times a week from Worthington to the riverfront on the Scioto Trail. He said he has been doing this for years.

Most of the trail has now been repaved, but much of the surrounding land still looks like a construction site as trees and plants grow back.

Kate Hammond, a rising senior studying health at Ohio State University, ran along the trail on Wednesday wearing a Grateful Dead shirt and listening to Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.”

Hammond said she was glad the trail was open again, but also enjoyed the detour through parts of campus she doesn’t often get to visit.

“I’m just excited to see new people walking by, cleaning up the river and opening up more trails along the river and things like that,” Hammond said. “I’m also excited to see more vegetation, more wildlife here, because life here is so much like city life, you know?”

In addition to this project, there is additional construction going on along and on the Olentangy Trail. The city has begun construction on what it calls the “final gap” of the Olentangy Trail between Como Park and Northmoor Park.

This project will build a bridge across the river and back, creating a new section of the trail. Currently, the trail travels south and north of North Broadway on city streets.

There is also new construction on the trail off Dodridge Street, where a construction crew is building a staircase from the trail up to the street.