SCHENECTADY COUNTY — Schenectady County wants to fill a gap in the Mohawk Hudson Bike-Hike Trail with the help of federal stimulus money, officials said Friday.
The Capital District Transportation Committee included $1.5 million for the project in its Transportation Improvement Program schedule for 2009-14.
Ray Gillen, Schenectady County commissioner of economic development and planning, said the project would close a gap in the trail between Washington Avenue and Balltown Road. The money will also refurbish the trail from Nott Street to Balltown Road in Niskayuna, near the Rexford Bridge.
“Finally, you will be able to get on at Rotterdam and go through the entire county to the Albany County line,” Gillen said.
County Legislator Gary Hughes, D-Schenectady, helped put together the stimulus proposal to the CDTC for the $1.5 million allocation.
“The gap has been there for 20 years,” he said.
The county was successful in obtaining the money because “you have to ask and advocate. The more you ask and the more you advocate, the more successful you are. We put together a good project,” Hughes said.
The county is also moving ahead with plans to use a $628,000 grant to create an urban bikeway connecting two city parks with the Mohawk Hudson Bike-Hike Trail near Schenectady County Community College.
The county will hold a public hearing on the state grant from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Price Chopper Community Center, 1639 Eastern Parkway.
“We will present it to the public. The presentation will mostly focus on the trail from Central Park to Vale Park to downtown,” Gillen said.
The new trail will create a park connector route for walkers and bikers traveling from Central Park through Vale Park, through downtown Schenectady and to the Mohawk Hudson Bike-Hike Trail that runs along Schenectady’s riverfront.
It will tie into the trail to be built with the $1.5 million in federal stimulus funds next year, Gillen said.
Hughes said that when both projects are completed, the trail will run from the Montgomery County line through the city to the Albany County line.
“They are both important projects. The bike link is important because it opens potential to allow someone to bike into downtown from upper Union via Central and Vale parks. And it is good for the central State Street neighborhood, as it creates the western entrance that Central Park never had,” Hughes said.
The money will be used to build ramps, install signs and create a dedicated bike trail along the proposed route, Gillen said.
“The preliminary design and engineering work is complete. Because this is a federal grant, we need to do a public meeting,” he said.