Three more sections of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail opened for public use Thursday, the Vermont Agency of Transportation said, bringing the 93-mile recreation path across northern Vermont close to completion almost a decade after construction began.
Work has now been finished on a roughly 18.5-mile segment between Sheldon and Cambridge; about 6 miles between Morrisville and Wolcott Village; and about 18 miles between Hardwick and Danville, the state said this week.
Just one segment of construction is left: about 6 miles between Wolcott Village and Hardwick, which should be completed by February.
State and local officials have long described the trail as an impetus for investment in local projects, and a boost for Vermont tourism. In Danville, for instance, locals plan to retrofit their historic train station along the rail trail route with restrooms, an information kiosk and rotating exhibits.
“I’m excited about it — I think the community is as well,” David Upson, the Hardwick town manager, said Thursday.
The trail, which runs along the banks of the Lamoille River and through the spine of the Green Mountains on a route created by the former St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County Railroad, will be the longest rail trail in New England once it’s finished. Because it follows a former railroad route, it’s mainly level, with only minor uphill grades.
The trail segments that have already been completed are paved with crushed stone and are open to all nonmotorized uses. In the winter, the trails are open to snowmobiles.
The Agency of Transportation said it’s working with the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers, a statewide snowmobiling group, to create detours for snowmobilers this winter while the final segment is being built.
From 2014 to 2017, the snow travelers association built 33 miles of the rail trail using funding from the federal government, municipalities and some private sources. The following year, the state took over construction of the route’s remaining sections.
Construction got a boost two years ago when the Vermont Legislature approved $2.8 million — augmented by $11.3 million in federal funding — to accelerate the project.
Earlier this month, the state announced about $700,000 in federal funding secured by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to improve the amenities in towns along the trail.
More than three-quarters of that money will pay for new picnic tables, portable toilets, bike facilities and other features at the path’s trailhead on Robin Hood Drive in Swanton — near the rail trail’s western terminus — as well as at a trailhead in Greensboro.
The rest of that money will fund a study for a trailhead in Hyde Park; a study of parking and amenities in Sheldon; and a study of the need for more regional amenities in St. Johnsbury, Danville, Cabot, Walden, Greensboro and Hardwick.
