Hiking trails in Southwest Virginia will benefit from almost $3.3 million in maintenance and reconstruction money thanks to the federal stimulus package, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The grants represent more than three times the annual budget for maintaining the region's trails and bridges, said Ted Coffman, recreation staff officer for the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.

"Our normal trail budget for this forest is around $1 million per year," he said. "We manage over 2,000 miles of trails and we have about 375 miles of the Appalachian Trail."

In a list of projects released Tuesday, the Forest Service said it would send $1.9 million of that money for general trail maintenance and bridge repair in the national forests' 36 counties. Trails will be cleared and get new culverts, and trail heads will get new gravel. The Forest Service, working with local volunteer groups, will also barricade shortcuts blazed by users and demolish condemned structures along the trails.

The Virginia Creeper Trail in Grayson and Washington counties will also receive an additional $1.1 million to repair the trestles and 29 bridges along the old railroad line that forms the backbone of the trail. The Forest Service maintains 18 miles near Damascus of the 35-mile-long Creeper Trail, which is used by roughly 200,000 hikers, horse riders and mountain bikers every year. The work will make it more wheelchair accessible and help the economies of neighboring communities.

The Forest Service will use the remaining $275,000 to repair trails and replace bridges in Bath, Bland, Lee and Smyth counties.

The money will replace the Laurel Creek Trail bridge along the Appalachian Trail in Bland County, which washed away in a flood about two years ago. Lee County's Lake Keokee will get seven new bridges, which will make them wheelchair accessible. Meanwhile, the suspension bridge on Beards Mountain in Bath County will get some work to improve shoreline protection. The money will also pay for two new bridges along the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail in Smyth County, a new bridge on a Bath County trail popular with birdwatchers and another bridge on Bath County's Beards Mountain.

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, hailed the announcement, saying in a release that the work "will enable much-needed improvements to the safety and quality of several trails throughout the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests."