Saturday, January 19, 2008
New Blacksburg bridge opens up park access
The Heritage Park bridge is also another addition to the Huckleberry Trail.
Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times
A Blacksburg public works employee rakes a gravel surface leading up to a new bridge spanning Toms Creek in Blacksburg’s Heritage Community Park. The bridge, which measures 24 foot long by 12 foot wide, connects the two ends of the 169-acre Heritage Park.
Locator map
BLACKSBURG -- The opening of the Heritage Community Park and Natural Area bridge this week excited hikers and bicyclists eager for the completion of a recreational transportation network stretching from the Jefferson National Forest to New River Valley Mall.
The wooden architectural bridge is 24 feet long and 12 feet wide. It straddles Toms Creek and connects the two ends of the 169-acre Heritage Park. It also slips into place one more link of the popular Huckleberry Trail that runs from New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg to the heart of Blacksburg.
The bridge will eventually be part of a larger Prices Fork spur of the trail scheduled for completion sometime in 2009, according to officials. When finished, it will create a long-anticipated alternative transportation system for the northwest end of town.
Blacksburg public works employees finished installation of the bridge, and opened it to foot and bike traffic Wednesday. The part of the trail that winds through the park is slated for paving this summer.
Stacey Kingsbury of Blacksburg was unloading her three dogs for their weekly trek through Heritage Park on Wednesday afternoon. Kingsbury said she has used the park for about four years as a place to exercise. She also likes to hike the nearby Gateway Trial from Meadowbrook Drive to the Jefferson National Forest.
Until Wednesday, though, Kingsbury had to choose between using the park -- which is bisected by Toms Creek -- or driving straight to the Gateway Trail. The new bridge, however, makes possible an extended, uninterrupted hike from Blacksburg's Glade Road to Pandapas Pond in the national forest.
The pond, the park and the trail "are incredibly popular," said Matt O'Toole of the New River Valley Bicycle Association. Connecting those amenities "creates a synergy and makes the whole bigger than the sum of its parts," he said.
A bike-safe trail from Christiansburg to the pond could encourage more bike riding overall and reduce both the number of car trips needed for recreation and the parking spaces needed at trail heads, O'Toole said.
All told, the new bridge cost Blacksburg taxpayers about $100,000 in design costs, permitting fees, and excavation and construction, according to Parks and Recreation Director Dean Crane.
Crane is working on obtaining easements for the Prices Fork spur, which will connect Heritage Park to the Hethwood section of Blacksburg by next year. That project will link one of the most densely populated areas of town to outlying recreation areas via a greenway.
Long-term plans are to extend the Huckleberry Trail south toward downtown Christiansburg and west into Pulaski County.
