If you've walked, biked, or paddled near the Military Ridge State Trail on Verona's west side this summer and found a chunk of it blocked off, you've probably filed it under one mental heading: "the trail's under construction." That's true, but it flattens something worth knowing. There are two separate projects tearing up the same stretch of ground right now, run by two different parties, on two different clocks, for two different reasons. One of them is just getting started this month. Knowing which closure you're looking at is the difference between a five-minute detour and wondering why the trail still isn't back a year from now.
The one you've probably already hit: Epic's new road
Epic Systems is building a new road connecting its campus directly to Highway 18/151. The project's working name is Hyper Drive, and the route it needs to take crosses straight over both the Military Ridge State Trail and the Sugar River. To put a bridge in, the city closed the section of trail between Epic Lane and the new roadway, with a detour that sends trail users north onto Epic Lane itself before rejoining the path. That closure started June 12, 2026, and it's scheduled to run through September 30, 2027, which puts it at roughly 15 months total. As of this week, we're a little over two months in, with just over a year left to go.
If you paddle the Sugar River rather than bike the trail, the same construction zone applies to you. Boaters need to portage around the work site for the length of the closure, and the portage crosses at a controlled intersection rather than an open stretch of bank.
One detail that's easy to miss: the trail doesn't stay locked the entire 15 months. It reopens to snowmobiles from December 2026 through February 2027, even while the Hyper Drive work is technically still active. If your winter routine runs through that corridor on a sled rather than on foot, you're not shut out for the whole closure window, just the non-winter months around it.
The one running underneath it: the city's own paving project
Separately, and for entirely different reasons, the City of Verona has been planning to pave and widen the Military Ridge Trail itself. Right now the trail's surface width varies between about 7 and 10 feet depending on the stretch. The city's plan brings it to a consistent 10 feet the whole way through, extending the paved surface that already exists east of Verona so it runs continuously through the city and out to the high school.
This is not the same project as Epic's road. It has its own history: the city and the Wisconsin DNR signed a land use agreement for it back in May 2025, and a public information meeting on the plan was held March 18, 2026, at the Verona Senior Center on Paoli Street. If you missed that meeting, the city has said another one is expected this fall.
Here's the part that makes this month specifically confusing if you're trying to track two projects at once: bridge and box culvert construction for the paving project, the stretch west of Lincoln Street, is scheduled to begin in August or September 2026 and finish in November. That means the paving project's own construction is starting during the exact same weeks as Epic's road closure, on a nearby but distinct segment of the same trail. Two contractors, two timelines, two reasons, overlapping by coincidence of scheduling rather than by design.
The paving project's actual asphalt work is further out. Preliminary design wraps this fall, hazard tree removal is expected in winter or early spring 2027, a second bridge (east of Wildcat Way, west of Old PB) gets built in spring 2027, and the final paving itself isn't scheduled until summer 2027. So even after Epic's Hyper Drive detour lifts next September, the trail will still be mid-project on the city's side for a while longer.
Two projects, side by side
| Epic's Hyper Drive road | City's trail paving project | |
|---|---|---|
| Who's building it | Epic Systems | City of Verona, with DNR |
| Why | New road connecting campus to Hwy 18/151 | Widen trail to a consistent 10 feet |
| Current closure | Trail segment between Epic Lane and new road | Bridge/box culvert work west of Lincoln St. |
| Detour | Via Epic Lane | None yet announced for current phase |
| Started | June 12, 2026 | August/September 2026 |
| Wraps up | September 30, 2027 | Summer 2027 (final paving) |
| Exception | Open to snowmobiles Dec. 2026–Feb. 2027 | N/A |
What you actually get when this is done
None of this disruption is happening for its own sake, and the payoff on Epic's side is more concrete than "a new road." As part of the Hyper Drive project, Epic is restoring more than 6 acres of wetlands and 3.5 acres of upland areas along the Sugar River valley, work that involves re-meandering the stream channel with input from the DNR, the Army Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife. When it's finished, the project adds a new shared-use path connection to the Military Ridge Trail for cyclists, a new public river access point for kayakers and anglers, and a small parking area that doesn't exist today. If you've ever wanted a closer public put-in on the Sugar River near that stretch, this is where it comes from.
On the city's side, the argument for widening to a consistent 10 feet is straightforward: a uniform surface is easier for anyone using a wheelchair, a stroller, or a handcycle, it holds up with less long-term maintenance than a patchwork of widths and surfaces, and it works better as both a transportation route and a recreational one. Whether you weigh that against the disruption of getting there is a fair question, and the city has acknowledged in its own materials that not every resident is on board with paving a trail that's been gravel or narrow asphalt for years. That tension is real and worth sitting with rather than waving away.
Planning around it for the next year
A few practical notes if you use this trail regularly. Dairy Ridge Road, which has been closed between Bobcat Lane and Seven Springs Road for its own separate construction, is set to reopen August 28, so if you've been rerouting around that closure too, that particular headache is nearly over. The Epic Lane detour for the Hyper Drive closure is signed and flagged, so it's not a guessing game once you're out there, but it does mean the section between Epic Lane and the new road is a genuine reroute, not a narrowed lane you can still squeeze through.
If you're the kind of person who tracks construction news the way other people track weather, the honest takeaway is that there's no single day circled on a calendar when "the trail reopens." Segments will come back in pieces as each project's phases wrap, Epic's detour first around next September, the city's paving work trailing into the following summer. Treat this as a multi-season condition of living near this corridor rather than a temporary inconvenience with one clear end date.
If you're weighing whether a home near this stretch of Verona fits your daily routine, whether that's your bike commute, your dog's evening walk, or your weekend paddle, that's exactly the kind of on-the-ground detail worth asking a local agent about before you assume anything based on a map. Accord Realty works across Verona and the rest of Dane County every day, and we're always glad to talk through what a specific address actually means for how you'll use the neighborhood around it. Contact us anytime.
