Saturday, November 07, 2009

Manhan Rail Trail is whole once again.

You may remember the scene above from just over a year ago. Our shiny, almost new railtrail was shortened by about a mile when a giant sinkhole swallowed up a fifty foot across stretch near the Rt. 5 end of the Manhan Rail trail. This happened back in September of 2008 (seems like only yesterday), and the Friends of the Manhan Rail Trail are happy to announce the hole has been filled, and all is well with the trail once again. As the article says, it wasn't cheap, but it was still a lot less costly than some of the early numbers that were thrown around..



To commemorate the 'made all better' trail, the Friends of the Manhan Rail Trail have announced a little ceremony to commemorate the fix. Here's the info:


Sinkhole Repair Ribbon Cutting Celebration


A ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the repair of the washed out rail trail will be held at the site of the former sinkhole on Sunday, November 8 at 1:00 PM. Access to the site off East St. is available through the Pascommuck Trust roadside property (between Fort Hill Road and Route 5). From the Pascommuck Trust area, walk down the short hiking trail to the ceremony.

I don't have a shot of the finished job, so instead I thought I'd include another favorite from my rail trail collection...

Congrats and thanks to all the hardworking volunteers over at the Friends of the Manhan Rail Trail and key city hall folks for securing the funds and making it happen. The Manhan Rail Trail is a shiny feather in Easthampton's cap, and it's great that it's back in full operation. Nicely done.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I took a few pictures of the damage while paddling the Oxbow and the Manhan River in March, 2009. They offer a slightly different viewpoint.

You can check them out here:

http://img257.imageshack.us/g/0314091318.jpg/

~JB

Jim Ingram said...

Very cool JB. Thanks for sharing.