News
Work underway on Bethel Pathway Extension
Posted July 15-Section by section, Bethel’s Pathway Extension is now working its way toward Telstar High School.
The recreational path project, intended to connect Davis Park with Telstar, got underway last month.
The Bethel Area Trails Committee of the Mahoosuc Land Trust oversees the project.
The extension is not being constructed sequentially, but in segments according to the readiness of the planning and funding.
On one leg, the Gateway Parcel on Route 26, Jack Cross Excavation has laid down crushed gravel to create a 2,053-foot path. The path follows the triangular-shaped property along the Intervale Road, then turns toward the Sunset Road. The MLT owns the Gateway property.
The gravel on the new path is permeable, according to Jim Mitchell, MLT executive director.
“It’s the same material as on the walks on the mall in Washington, D.C.,” he said Monday.
Yet to be constructed is a bridge to carry walkers over a wetland area on the parcel.
The Gateway section of the Pathway is funded by a $29,602 grant from the Recreational Trails Program. The grant is federal money, made available through the state.
After the Gateway, the next section to be constructed will be an 800-foot leg between Davis Park and the Intervale Road. It will cross the Alder River along the way. Another $30,000 RTP grant, together with a 20 percent local match (through in-kind contributions), will provide the funding.
A plan for that section was scheduled to go before the Bethel Planning Board last night (Wednesday).
Planning for the remaining portion, from Sunset Road to Telstar, is continuing and includes discussions with property owners in that area, Mitchell said.
The new Bethel Pathway Extension Trail begins near the intersection of Route 26 and Intervale Road, on the Gateway Parcel. (For a photo of the first user - a four footed one - see Citizen print edition.)