curt's blog

The counties of Carteret, Craven, Jones, Onslow, and Pamlico (and local municipalities) invite area residents to attend any of four public open house workshops for the Croatan Regional Trails Plan and the Croatan Regional Bicycle Plan. The Workshops will  utilize an open house format; workshops will be held in Jacksonville and Beaufort on September 13th, in New Bern on the 14th and in Grantsboro on the 15th. Please see their Flyer for the specifics on addresses and times.

This survey asks respondents to identify priorities for transportation investments, and requests input on funding. You can find it at a link to the online version: https://www.ncdot.gov/performance/reform/2040Plan/.
Please share the survey with your employees, friends, family, clients, members - anyone and everyone. The survey will close on September 30, 2011 at midnight.

Staff from the NC Institute of Public Health adopted the Libba-Cotten Trail about 3 years ago and invite workers to join the clean-up 3-4 times per year. On August 15th they held a workday to sweep and otherwise clean up the trail. The dozen or so participants did a fine job and received thanks and "right-ons" from numerous trail users. Here are pictures of the volunteers, picking up trash, sweeping and generally enjoying themselves.

Durham has received and reviewed the bids for completing the ATT in Durham County. The lowest bid totaled some $7.7 million, ~2million more than cost estimates and funding currently available for the project. The City Manager and top staff are examining options to allow the bridge over I-40 and trail sections connecting the bridge to be contracted for soon with the balance to be done in a later phase starting in 2012. Additional funding from Durham may be obtained from dollars currently budgeted for sidewalks and greenways. Other funding from non-highway projects requested by the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro MPO will also be explored. Coordination of such arrangements with NC DOT will be needed as well as approval by the City Council. An award date for the contract has not been estimated but could occur by October. For more background on this long running project please see Jim Wise's article in the News & Observer and a Durham Herald-Sun article on August 6th.

Since August 6th, NC DOT has decided that Durham must rebid the project. We understand that the construction drawings will have to be broken out into two documents (for each phase), and each will have to be approved by NCDOT again before bidding can start. Tentatively one phase/project will be the bridge itself as well as the trail from NC54 to Renaissance (the approaches), and the other phase/project would be the rest of the trail. This breakout is tentative and may change as the construction drawings are revised. For more on these more recent events please see this August 10th Herald-Sun article and a short piece from the the N & O's Bullseye Blog. Further status info can be found on the City's page on the American Tobacco Trail Project.

Late August News on Possible Re-Programming of Sidewalk and Other Durham Funding

In late August, Durham City staff announced pending efforts to shift ~$3.8 Million from four Durham sidewalk projects to the Phase E project for the ATT. This shift must be approved by the Durham-Chapel Hill/Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization as well as Durham's City Council. Further detail on this proposal can be found in a August 22 article in the Herald-Sun. On August 28th a member of a key advisory board says Durham officials need to look harder at why the bids for an extension of the American Tobacco Trail came in about 38 percent higher than expected. Please see the August 28th Herald-Sun article for more on this issue.

The EVTA will be the beneficiary of a night of Jump Blues at Harry's Place in downton Elkin. Shows will start at 6:30 and 8:30pm. Come and go as you please all night. Admission: $10 (Suggested Donation to Elkin Valley Trails Association) Kids with parents Free! Hamburgers, Shrimp and Cold Beverages available for purchase!  The Association's first major project is to create a hiking/biking trail which follows the route of the former Elkin and Alleghany Railroad from Downtown Elkin to the City Reservoir and then to points north to Stone Mountain where it will connect with the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. This will become a primary route of the NC Mountains-to-Sea Trail, a state linear park and the premier hiking trail of North Carolina. Elkin will be one of the few towns that the MTS Trail passes through and this segment will come right down Main Street!

Please contact the Association to donate your time, money and energy to make  trails and greenways a reality in the Elkin Valley region. Bill Blackley, serves as the Coordinator of the Elkin Valley Trails Association. He can be reached by mail, phone or Email as follows:

Mailing Address: 105 Knollwood Drive Elkin, NC 28621

Phone: 336.835.4630

Email: wjblackley@gmail.com

Iredell County is the tenth county within the 15 county region to adopt a Master Plan for The Thread. The Master Plan provides a long-term vision for the development of trails and greenways within the county. Together, these trails will create a comprehensive, multi-use,network for connecting people, natural areas and regional points of interest. The 1 mile Troutman rail-trail is included in this plan. For more on The Thread, please see the Carolina Thread Trail web site.

Recently we came across a new study documenting the economic pay back from a sample of mostly urban cycling projects. This report presents data that many in the rail-trail community have known or at least believed for years: cycling projects often generate local spending by cyclists which is recurrent and has a bigger pay back than road projects of equal cost. Please see this link to the article for a fuller discussion of the findings.

In late May, the NCDOT notified the Town of Washington of their award of a $28,000 Bicycle & Pedestrian Planning grant. This grant will allow to allow the Town to hire a consultant to develop a plan for bicycling resources and facilities in Washington. This municipal plan is a required first step before funding for extended connections can be requested. A portion of Washington's plan will include the Washington-Greenville greenway project (much of which is a former rail corridor). NC Rail-Trails has been providing encouragement and support to this project since 1994 and takes some pride in the award as we assisted in preparing and submitting this most recent application. The Town is now preparing a Municipal Reimbursement Agreement and expects to have a consulting firm on-board this Summer. For area residents interested in more on this project please contact Philip Mobley.

A group of active cyclists from Edenton has taken the initiative to try to expand bicycling in the beautiful Albemarle Sound area. On May 12 they began the process with a public meeting to inform local citizens of their interests. Attendance was good and Carrie Banks and Dave Connelly of NC Rail-Trails spoke to the group to offer encouragement and future support in seeking grants. For more on the flavor of the meeting and contact information please see the 5/21 article in the Daily Advance

On April 26th & 27th information sessions will be held to answer questions and gather public input concerning plans for the long-term expansion of the A & Y Greenway trail.  The April 26th session will be held at the Stokesdale Town Hall while on the 27th it will be held at the Field House at Summerfield Athletic Park. Both sessions will be held from 11am to 7pm. Currently, a feasibility study is underway for the proposed rail trail. The trail follows the old Atlantic and Yadkin rail corridor and extends through Summerfield to downtown Stokesdale and beyond. The trail will eventually be incorporated into the North Carolina Mountains-to-Sea Trail that stretches nearly 1000 miles from Clingmans Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks. For details on these meetings and on-going updates on plans and studies, please visit the A & Y Greenway Trail site .