Huckleberry Trail is Sprouting
As reported by the Roanoke Times, the Huckleberry Trail is undergoing some “pruning” as they build out the trail and repair a rusting bridge.
Hopefully residents and trail enthusiasts will see a Huckleberry Trail that runs from the Christiansburg Recreation Center, through Christiansburg and Blacksburg, and connects to Jefferson National Forest in Montgomery County, within two to three years.
Plans also call for the trail to continue north near the portion that connects to Plantation Road. It will connect to the Hethwood Trail and continue across Prices Fork Road and to the Blacksburg Fire Department before eventually reaching Glade Road, which connects to the national forest trail network through Heritage Park.
The town just finished a trail section on a one-third-mile stretch of property on Prices Forks Road through a $100,000 Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation grant. The grant required a 20 percent local match. Blacksburg provided its own labor to account for half the local match, and the Montgomery County Parks and Recreation department gave the town the other 10 percent.
Trailgoers in Blacksburg have been inconvenienced since April by a bridge closure over Southgate Drive. The bridge was closed as a safety precaution after town staff noticed some of its supports were rusted.
It was recently announced that the bridge would be replaced. In the meantime, those who cross have been using a set of temporary stairs that lead to a crosswalk on Southgate Drive.
A replacement bridge has been ordered and will take about 6 weeks to arrive. When finished, the new bridge will look similar to the old one, except that the steps are two feet wider. The replacement and construction work is budgeted at $75,000.
Ellenbogen said $2 million is in place to construct the new piece of the trail that would extend from the mall to the Christiansburg Recreation Center. Depending on the town’s timetable of constructing a bridge across Pepper’s Ferry Road, the trail should be completed within two to three years, Ellenbogen said.
To read more, visit: http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/288500
