The City of Bridgeport got some good news on the recreation front Friday. Officials learned that they had successfully applied for a recreational trail program grant through the West Virginia Division of Highways.

 

The grant is for $200,000. Of that total, $160,000 is grant and the remaining 20 percent – or $40,000 – is the required city match.

 

“This is a proposal we’ve been working on for several years as part of the city’s walking program,” said Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Joe Shuttleworth. “As part of our overall plan we’ve been trying to make the entire city a walkable community and this grant will allow us to complete a key component.”

 

The grant will allow the city to tie in the section of trails involved with Main Street, City Park and other areas to the trails at Hinkle and Deegan Lakes. Without the grant money, the possibility of creating a safer walkway to that section of Bridgeport would have been difficult to complete.

 

“The lakes have proven to be among our most popular places to walk, particularly with the unique recreational facilities we have there,” said Shuttleworth.

 

With the money, the grant will work in similar fashion to a previous trail project that connected the downtown area of the city to Bridgeport City Park. The city tied the walking areas together by installing a trail in the area behind the U-Stow It section and The Station just off of Virginia Avenue back into the City Park area.

 

“This will connect the downtown corridor and facilities here with the lakes,” said Shuttleworth. “It will be a safe alternative for biking, walking and running along the roadway.”

 

The project will utilize existing sidewalks in the downtown area. The bulk of the project will begin along Virginia Avenue just past the Post Office. From there, it will work its way past the top entrance of the Valley Hills Shopping Center and then toward the Burnside Funeral Home. Eventually, the new trail will go to the carwash at the corner of Virginia Avenue and State Route 58.

 

As for the design and safety features, Shuttleworth said that’s all yet to be determined. The city will still have to finalize an agreement with the state after laying out the scope of work. There are also steps involving an environmental review, putting the project out to bid for design by an engineer, taking the engineer’s project specifications and bidding it out for contract work and getting everything signed off on by the West Virginia Division of Highways.

 

“The DOH will have to agree on everything. Any project like this where you’re working in their right of way you have to overcome hurdles, but we’re confident that we’ll be doing that,” said Shuttleworth.

 

As for a time frame, Shuttleworth was not certain. However, he said seeing the project start within a year isn’t unreasonable.

 

“It could be as early as this fall, but could be as late as next spring,” said Shuttleworth. “We’ll know more once we get into this.”

 

Editor's Note: Top photo is of Joe Shuttleworth of Bridgeport Parks and Recreation. The highly popular trail at the lakes is pictured below.