MORGANTOWN — A project currently under development will utilize government land to help connect the Suncrest residential area to the Mon River Rail-Trail system.
The National Energy Technology Laboratory recently announced a land use agreement with the city of Morgantown through which NETL licensed 22.6 acres to the city for the development of a greenway connector.
The natural connector will follow West Run through Burris Run Hollow, below Morgan Drive.
WVU Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Vaike Haas is designing the trail with the assistance of third-year landscape architecture students.
Haas said the remnants of an old wagon trail cut through the swath of land, which is blanketed by an array of wildflowers each spring.
“Students and I need to finish flagging the proposed trail corridor to get a length estimate used for costing and know how many features are needed to accommodate the topography,” Haas told The Dominion Post.
“It’s looking like it will come in around 1.6 miles of trail, with two kiosks and six trail markers and maybe 10 switchbacks.”
Morgantown Communications Director Drew Bailey said the city hasn’t determined if it will fund the construction, pursue volunteer opportunities or use some combination thereof to complete the work, which will include brush clearing, grading and drainage infrastructure.
Haas estimates the cost at around $52,000, if the work is contracted out.
This is actually the second such easement provided by the Department of Energy lab located on Collins Ferry Road. A similar agreement between the Mon River Trail Conservancy and NETL facilitated improvements to the Collins Ferry Connector trail taking place this spring.
Both the Collins Ferry Connector and this new access trail will help connect cyclists and pedestrians to the Mon River Rail-Trail System, 48 miles of connected pathways named to the National Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Hall of Fame in 2020.
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