Union rail trail extension will add to quality of life in Ocean, Monmouth – Asbury Park Press
Union rail trail extension will add to quality of life in Ocean, Monmouth Asbury Park Press
The first mile of the extension of Monmouth County’s Union Transportation Trail into Ocean County is expected to be complete later this summer.
Andrew Sharp Published 1:07 p.m. ET June 27, 2019 | Updated 1:08 p.m. ET June 27, 2019
Later this summer the first mile of the extension of Monmouth County’s Union Transportation Trail into Ocean County is expected to be complete. When the extension opens and a planned northern extension into Mercer County is finished, this safe path for pedestrians, horseback riders and bicyclists will connect Hightstown and New Egypt.
The creation of this rail trail is a tribute to the foresight of the Monmouth County Park System, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal government. Thanks to a $1.2 million grant from the federal Transportation Alternatives Program, work has been going on since last winter on a much-needed underpass of busy Route 537 to allow walkers, runners and bicyclists to continue on the former railroad right-of-way from the current end of the trail, just short of 537 and the county line, into Ocean County.
The Ocean County freeholders, meanwhile, are using a $400,000 grant from the New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority to help pay for a two-mile extension of the trail into the village of New Egypt in Plumsted. The first part of the extension, due to be completed by fall, will end near New Egypt High School.
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All across the country, unused railroad rights-of-way are being transformed into linear parks, connecting communities and providing opportunities for walkers, runners, bike riders and people on horseback to exercise and enjoy the outdoors. As roads in the western parts of Monmouth and Ocean become busier, these safe corridors are a welcome addition to the region’s preserved parkland.
The Monmouth County Park System leased for 99 years the right-of-way of the old Union Transportation rail line in 1998 from Jersey Central Power & Light Co.. The rail line, established in 1868, once carried passenger and freight from Pemberton to Hightstown. Passenger service ended in the 1930s, but freight trains used the line until 1977.
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The park system opened the first section of the Union Transportation Trail through Upper Freehold Township in 2010. Since then, the two northern sections have been completed. The trail runs south from the boundary with Mercer County at Route 539 to just short of the county’s border with Ocean County at Route 537 — nine miles long.
The 600-foot extension of the trail path beyond the Millstream Road parking area awaits completion the tunnel. Work on the tunnel is why a temporary traffic signal, limiting vehicles to a single lane, is in place on Route 537, just southeast of Route 539. The 10-foot-high tunnel under Route 537 will be 16 feet wide.
Plumsted officials have received the backing of the State Planning Commission, which could make the township eligible for state funds for the trail and any further extension. Ocean County completed work in 2011 on the plan to extend the trail into New Egypt’s business district.
Work on the northern extension is not as far along. Hearings are being held this summer on Mercer County’s plans for the trail extension. East Windsor received a $135,000 grant in September 2017 for preliminary work on a part of the trail that would follow an already existing path along the rail right-of-way to the New Jersey Turnpike. The trail would then use the Windsor-Perrineville Road overpass to carry the trail to Airport Road just outside of Hightstown. Extensions on both ends would lengthen the trail to about 15 miles.
Officials in all three counties, as well as non-profit groups such as the Crosswicks-Doctors Creek Watershed Association, deserve praise for their cooperative efforts on such quality-of-life improvements.
Andrew Sharp, of Upper Freehold, is a former editorial page editor for the Asbury Park Press.
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