ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 7, 1996 TAG: 9612090104
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
Even though the new recreational pathway is only half completed, plans are moving forward to extend the Huckleberry Trail on each end.
If those plans become a reality, the extended trail would connect municipal recreation centers in Blacksburg and Christiansburg.
Today, phase one of the rails-to-trails conversion project named for the old Huckleberry train will be celebrated with a dedication ceremony. About three miles of the new footpath and bikeway have been finished, connecting the new Blacksburg branch library to the intersection of Merrimac and Hightop roads.
Dignitaries will snip the ribbon at 11:30 a.m., with speeches and refreshments beneath a tent set up near Virginia Tech's library storage facility off County Club Drive. The public is invited.
Meanwhile, plans to begin phase two of Huckleberry Trail construction, which will extend the pathway to the New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg, are being prepared for bid. Officials say if all goes well work should begin in late spring and be finished a year from now.
Blacksburg has already announced plans to extend the trail from the library through downtown along a new "Bicentennial Greenway." Scheduled for completion by the town's 200th birthday in 1998, the 0.6-mile footpath will wind along sidewalks, alleys and back yards from the library north to College Avenue.
The town has been awarded a $48,000 grant from the state for construction of the greenway, according to Marc Verniel, Blacksburg's comprehensive planner.
Earlier this year the town requested about $90,000 from the Virginia Recreational Trails Fund for the project. Getting only half that amount isn't a setback, but it does mean the town may have to find other means to fund amenities such as benches and historical interpretive signs, he said.
The Bicentennial Greenway is estimated to cost $323,706. Much of the cost will be provided by the town through in-kind services such as labor to build the trail.
Eventually the town plans to extend the trail from downtown to the Blacksburg Recreation Center, although a specific connector route hasn't been determined.
Blacksburg won't actually get its hands on the state grant until environmental reviews are completed, a process that delayed construction of the Huckleberry Trail for a year.
No land acquisition will be needed for the Bicentennial Greenway, which will be generally built to the Huckleberry Trail's specifications of 8 feet wide with 2-foot shoulders. However, the town will have to obtain easements to cross private land in several places.
Unlike the Huckleberry Trail, bikers and skaters will be prohibited from using most of the new greenway. Its surface will be crushed stone or brick where the path crosses pavement.
On the opposite end of the trail, plans to extend the Huckleberry Trail to the site of Christiansburg's recreation center at North Franklin and Cambria streets haven't progressed as far.
Presently the trail is designed to terminate on the New River Valley Mall's property just north of Peppers Ferry Road. Planners want to extend the trail across the road to the recreation center when that facility is built and beyond to downtown Christiansburg.
Joe Powers, Montgomery County's planning director and chairman of the trail's engineering committee, has asked the Virginia Department of Transportation to consider building an overpass or underpass at the trail's crossing of Peppers Ferry Road if that busy highway is expanded to four lanes.
The new Wal-Mart completed earlier this year designated an easement behind its property off Peppers Ferry Road for a trail extension. But officials haven't decided how to route the trail beyond that point or obtained the financial means to build it.
Barry Helms, Christiansburg's assistant town manager, said town officials will discuss whether or not to apply for a federal grant from the same source that funded both phases of the Huckleberry Trail.
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