HAYWARD — Bikers and hikers could soon be blazing to a new portion of a local trail.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources officials confirmed Wednesday that the Blazing Star Trail has been allocated the final funding needed to extend from the Myre-Big Island State Park to Hayward.

The project was one of only a half dozen trail projects to receive a state funding allocation for 2012, according to Kent Skaar with acquisition and development for the Parks and Trails Division of the Minnesota DNR.

Skaar said the project has been allocated $500,000, which should be close to the amount needed.

The update came during a meeting with at least 30 people present at the Hayward City Hall.

Organizers hope to move forward with engineering work this winter and gather bids for the project in late winter or early spring. Most of the major construction will take place in 2012.

“We’re certainly in a much better position now to complete the trail than we were three months ago,” Skaar said.

The project has been in the works for several years.

The Legislature authorized the existence of the Blazing Star Trail in 1996. Initial funding came in 1998, and land deals took five years, after which the trail was built from Albert Lea into Myre-Big Island State Park. Hayward built restrooms in 2003 in anticipation of the trail.

In 2005, the Legislature authorized $1.47 million in the bonding bill for the trail, with the aim of getting it to Hayward. That funding had a five-year spending deadline, but during the 2010 session, the Legislature extended the deadline to June 2014.

Some of that funding went to purchasing about 20 acres that will make up about three miles of the trail, while some will go toward the work on the trail itself. About four miles of trail has to be paved because one mile is in Myre-Big Island State Park.

Skaar said a bridge planned to go over Albert Lea Lake as part of the project has become a major point of conversation.

“It’s going to be unique in our system,” he said. “There’s nothing else quite like it.”

He said he envisions the park being filled with more bicyclists because of the bridge, which will be about 1,900 feet long.

“It’s going to be a cool feature,” he noted. “Folks will ride out to it simply to be on the bridge.”

DNR officials asked the people in attendance and others interested in the project to consider where the trail should go after it is extended to Hayward. Skaar said the projects that have been planned and are ready to begin work are more likely to receive state funding.