As is traditional, the Blacksburg Town Council presented the town’s Capital Improvements Plan for public comment during its first meeting of the year.
Adoption of the CIP happens in the second meeting, Jan. 22.
A review of the CIP included the last minute addition, highlighted in yellow since it had been added coming up during work session and public input, $4, 134,000 for a bicycle and pedestrian bridge carrying the Huckleberry Trail over busy Price’s Fork Road.
“What we’re proposing is to put it in Year 5, it may not get built within that five-year period,” Marc Verniel, Blacksburg town manager said in presenting significant projects in the CIP to the council, “but by putting it into the capital improvement program, it allows us to start looking for funds that may help us to start funding that project.”
A bridge was originally proposed to the council in November by Friends of Huckleberry Trail President and charter member Bill Ellenbogen.
While inclusion in the CIP does not mean the project is funded, Ellenbogen, sees the recognition of the bridge in the CIP as meaningful.
“It is still significant because it does mean that the town has recognized the importance of the bridge being completed at some point in the future,” he said.
“Town council has shown great foresight in recognizing the need for this amenity as the use of the Huckleberry Trail grows.”
The bridge would link the 8-mile existing trail that runs from Christiansburg to the north stretch of trail and boardwalk under construction now.
Projected to be completed in May, the new stretch continues the path across the fields to Linwood Lane and Heritage Park at Glade Road where a mountain biking skills park at the foot of Brush Mountain is in early planning stages with the prospect of becoming a destination for cyclists.
“Once it is completed, the traffic on this new section of the Huckleberry North Trail will increase dramatically, as will trail users wishing to safely cross Prices Fork Road,”
In further coordination of greenspace planning, last month cycling enthusiasts raised $40,000 through T-shirt sales, brewery events and film festivals to support the town’s development of the biking skills park.
Also in December, the New River Land Trust, Community Housing Partners, Blacksburg and Montgomery County acquired 553 acres of land on Brush Mountain slated to be used as low intensity recreational land with multi-purpose natural trails for mountain biking, hiking and riding.
“The whole area near the Heritage Park, the Gateway Park, and these new land acquisitions will become the largest area of parkland in the Town of Blacksburg and will definitely be a destination for cyclists,” Ellenbogen predicted. “The bridge over Prices Fork Road will be that much more important as these new recreational opportunities are fully developed.“