The Tennessee Central Heritage Rail Trail moving toward a groundbreaking for the West End to Cane Creek connection following the approval of a $50,000 state engineering grant.
Friends of the Tennessee Central Trail President Michael Lepley said the funding covers the survey work required before construction bids can be requested. Lepley said the project already has $400,000 in city funding and private donations earmarked for the construction phase.
“You do a lot of fundraising,” Lepley said, “A lot of trying to get a lot of private grants and donations as well and it’ll be really good to really add the first extension to the trail in almost 10 years.”
Lepley said the connector will link the existing 4.4 miles of the Heritage Rail Trail to another four miles of paved trail within Cane Creek Park.
Lepley said the new grant allows the organization to preserve its existing funds for the actual building of the trail rather than spending them on preliminary work. Property lines have been settled and crews have already cleared brush to allow surveyors access to the site.
“Well, if you don’t have any engineering then nothing happens,” Lepley said. “No one will bid for it, you can’t go out for grants, you can’t even figure out how much how many dollars you’re going to need to spend to actually do the project.”
This segment is designed to be ADA accessible and will feature either a paved or crushed gravel surface.
“The hope is that the Depot area can kind of help reinvigorate that missing piece and totally connect Cane Creek Park to Algood all the way through from one end of basically one side of Cookeville all the way to the middle of Algood,” Lepley said.
Lepley said the long-term vision for the project involves extending the trail from Monterey through Cookeville and toward Baxter. The organization generates approximately $50,000 annually through public events to provide matching funds for state and local government grants.
“It feels like it’s been a long time but whenever you’re doing this the wheels tend to move slow and you gotta make sure you have the funding behind it and that just takes a long time to get all that together,” Lepley said. “So I’m fortunate to be part of the group that this is going to happen on but a lot of people want the trail to go forward.”
