Trail project is covering ground

Earlier this week, Andy Beers, director of the Empire State Trail, was in western New York for the groundbreaking of a new 2.1-mile section of trail in Niagara County. It's just one of 60 projects he's coordinating and facilitating as part of the initiative to build a 750-mile trail network criss-crossing the state.

When I wrote about the Empire State Trail in this space last year, I was frankly a little skeptical about the timeline for the ambitious project. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pitched the trail network in his January 2017 State of the State address, promising that it would be complete in three years.

The "greenway" would cross the state from east to west and from north to south, from Albany to Buffalo and from Manhattan to the Canadian border. Completing it would involve building 350 miles of new trails and incorporating hundreds of miles of current trail. In his speech, Cuomo said the project would cost $200 million, with 72 miles being built the first year, 82 miles the second and 196.6 miles the third.

For a local trails fan who has watched trail improvements languish for years for want of funding, the three-year timeline seemed unlikely.

And yet, a little over a year later, some big projects are underway. Beers said Cuomo's commitment to the project is what's pushing things forward.

"This is what happens when Gov. Cuomo announces a new initiative and says this is a state priority. It elevates the importance of the project among the participating agencies," he said. "And the other issue is funding ... When the governor proposed and the legislature agreed to a $200 million appropriation for the statewide Empire State Trail, it's allowed projects like this that people have been talking about for years if not decades to go from discussion to action."

One project that has languished for years is right in our backyard.

For many cyclists riding west out of Schenectady, the Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail (part of the Erie Canalway Trail that runs from Buffalo to Albany) ends abruptly at a set of railroad tracks near Scrafford Lane in Rotterdam Junction. To continue riding west, cyclists need to backtrack to Mabie Lane, then ride on the shoulder of Route 5S to Iroquois Lane. From there, the trail picks up again ... but only for another 1.3 miles. Then anyone wanting to continue west to the rest of the Erie Canalway Trail has to ride on the shoulder of Route 5S for nearly six miles, from Rotterdam Junction to where the off-road trail starts up again outside Amsterdam. Route 5S has a wide shoulder, but traffic on the two-lane road is going at or above the posted 55 mph speed limit, and there's quite a bit of heavy truck traffic from the industrial businesses along the route.

In short, it's bikeable, for a road-confident cyclist. But it's definitely not family-friendly.

Now, the state has the funding and the drive for two projects: finding a way to connect the trail from one side of the railroad tracks to the other, and building an off-road option for cyclists traveling west from Rotterdam Junction to Amsterdam.

Beers said the state Department of Transportation is working on a solution for the railroad issue, with the idea that a tunnel could be built under the rail line. A public hearing on the project is expected sometime in June.

"We're committed to trying to solve this problem and we have allocated funding out of the Empire State Trail initiative to do that," Beers said, "but there still are some questions about whether it's technically feasible."

As for the new section of trail along Route 5S, Beers said the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has already started construction and the project is expected to be complete by fall. There will still be a one-mile on-road gap to contend with, with the new trail picking up just west of Pattersonville. Beers said the state is also looking at ways to close that gap, but it's not clear if it can be done within the 2020 timeline set for Empire State Trail projects.

Other local projects in the works include the 35-mile Albany-Hudson Electric Trail, from Rensselaer to Hudson, slated for construction in 2019 and 2020, and 22 miles of new trail along the Champlain Canalway Trail in Saratoga, Washington and Warren counties.

By 2020, there should be plenty of new trails for Capital Region locals — and hopefully out-of-town visitors — to explore.

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