7 More Miles
Chris Gamache, chief of the state trails bureau, is retiring as of Thursday after a long career helping to develop and maintain more than 6,000 miles of trails across the state for both motorized and non-motorized recreational use.
A lot of it has relied on repurposing old rail corridors for recreational use. Gamache asked councilors to take on a last-minute agenda item to approve a plan to abandon seven miles of rail from Littleton into Bethlehem and to develop it into a winter use trail for both snowmobiles and cross country skiing and for summer bike and walking through Littleton’s downtown River District. It was unanimously approved.
Gamache said it took about seven years to get through the process of getting the rails to be abandoned and the state was able to find four contractors, with the low bidder from Littleton, Hammer Down Construction.
Funding will come through a combination of federal Northern Borders grant money and that which is within the recreational trails program’s fund.
The goal is to start the phase now with rail ties removed on three miles before winter. It will start off Industrial Park Drive in Littleton where the existing Ammonoosuc trail now ends and go to Reddington Street through the downtown part of the trail.
Phase two will go just shy of Wayne Road in Bethlehem probably a year and a half away before the funding can be put together.
He acknowledged “my last day is set for tomorrow…but this one is a major project for me to get through the council so that the process can begin tomorrow, if possible.”