High-Speed-Rail + Your-Speed-Trail

Working with state and federal officials, ECGA volunteers have helped ensure that ongoing planning work on the proposed South East High Speed Rail Corridor between Petersburg, VA and Raleigh, NC will include a greenway corridor in both states. Environmental planning, set to begin this spring, has been approved to acquire a 30-foot easement adjacent to the rail corridor specifically to support a greenway trail. Piggy-backing a greenway trail onto this large interstate transportation effort provides an unique opportunity for large-scale trail implementation.

The greenway would generally follow the high speed rail corridor but would diverge at towns to provide access to local amenities. In areas were the high speed rail alignment will divert from existing railroad track, newly abandoned track bed will be used as the base recreational trail. In other areas, where the new high-speed rail alignment will follow existing tracks, the greenway would be adjacent to the rail corridor. This means that the proposed 140-mile trail would be a unique mix of rail-to-trails and rails-with-trails. While this effort is still in the early planning phases, ECGA intends to use the momentum of this first effort to push this ambitious plan to a successful conclusion.

Source: East Coast Greenway E-News

Coastal Georgia Greenway updates

Progress is happening all along the route of the Coastal Georgia Greenway, which will also serve as the East Coast Greenway.

• Master grants writer and ECGA Georgia Committee Co-Chair Jo Hickson of Savannah is notably advancing the trail through many projects. Activities include a greenway-inclusive design of the Back River Bridge between South Carolina and Hutchinson Island and partnering with the Coastal Heritage Society Trail through Savannah's Battlefield Park and along the Savannah Ogeechee Canal
• Bryan County seeks recreational trail grant funds to build trails to Henderson Park
• Liberty County will construct a trailhead at Riceboro Creek this spring, in a project that includes a bridge
• A trail at historic LeConte-Woodmanston Plantation will memorialize more than 6,000 slaves in the county 150 years ago.
• Also involving Jo Hickson, McIntosh County has $1,075,000 for construction of the seven-mile Highlander Trail.
• In Brunswick, funds are sought for a two-mile Liberty Ship Trail at the foot of the Sidney Lanier Bridge, and a one-mile extension northward to the Torres Causeway and St. Simons Island.
• In Camden County, research is underway to acquire a six-mile abandoned rail corridor linking St. Marys and Fernandina Beach, Florida via ferry service to begin this spring.

Source: East Coast Greenway E-News

Innovative bike filters water as it transports

The Aquaduct is a pedal-powered vehicle that stores, filters, and transports water for the developing world. It is the grand prize winner of the Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered Machine contest.