SEWELL VALLEY, W.Va. — The pending abandonment of more than six miles of rail line in Greenbrier County is good news for the leaders of the Meadow River Trail project.
“We knew that we needed to get the last 6.4 miles of the rail line, which ended in Fayette County but goes on down into Rainelle, West Virginia,” Doug Hylton, Greenbrier County Team Leader for the Meadow River Trail Project, told MetroNews. “That’s the 6.4 miles [CSX] are looking to abandon now.”
That length of CSX rail line is the final portion needed for the County Commissions in Greenbrier and Fayette County to complete the acquisition of the trail system, but Hylton cautions that the recreation trail project is still nowhere near completion.
“We’re getting the environmental done on the last 6.4 miles so that CSX will release the final 6.4 miles to the two County Commissions,” Hylton said.
The Meadow River Trail Project, first conceived in 2008, hit a slight speed bump last June when historic flooding damaged the six-mile portion of the trail that had already been upgraded for recreational use.
“The planner has had to go back and reassess the amount of damage to the unimproved portion of the trail,” Hylton said.
That six-mile portion included a damaged trestle bridge in the Nallen area of Fayette County, which led into Greenbrier County.
“That trestle was severely damaged,” Hylton said. “We still have to get a 50-ton piece of metal out of the river, put back up onto the concrete pillars, and then rebuild the bridge.”
Those repairs can’t begin until FEMA releases funding, Hylton said. That further complicates projecting a completion date for a project that Hylton said the County Commissions’ have pursued at a reasonable and deliberate pace. The upside, he said, is that working together reduces cost.
“The good thing with the two County Commissions working together is where you have an 80-20 match on these grant applications, Fayette County takes care of ten percent,” he said. “Greenbrier County takes care of ten percent. It’s not as great of a financial burden.”
The 80 percent is provided by a Department of Highways Fund, which is potentially contributing to one of the more ambitious recreation trails in the state.
“We’re hoping that this trail system, once it’s linked to Greenbrier County, will allow people to start at Rainelle, go all the way through Fayette County, on into Raleigh, Kanwaha County, all those areas, and eventually connect with the Hatfield-McCoy systems,” Hylton said.
Planning and evaluations are still underway on the separate five-mile portions of the trail that had not yet been upgraded before last June’s floods.
In total, the trail will encompass nearly 23 miles when completed.
Hylton estimates about $3 million has been contributed to the project’s development so far.