Below are minutes of the meeting of a state wide trail group that may be of interest to those of you who want to know what is going on in rail trail work in New Hampshire outside of our Merrimack County organization.
NH-RTC Conference Call Notes – March 23, 2015
Draft text by Tim Blagden
Attending: Alex Bernhard, Thom Little, Greg Bakos, Dave Topham, Charles Martin, Tim Blagden
Updates were shared in advance of the meeting from Keene, Hooksett, and Nashua River Rail Trail.
Alex reported the Northern Rail Trail had purchased four Blue Signs from NH-DOT at a cost of $400 each. There is an annual maintenance cost of approximately $10 per sign. More details can be found here:
Greg Bakos provided an update on the Goffstown Rail Trail. Their TE grant is ready to go to bid at the end of the month. The project covers the two route 114 crossings and the Mast Rd. and Old Henry Bridge Road Crossing discussed on pages 5 and 7 of this trail review
This is project 16029, and 16029A, as shown on page 5 here:
This NRPC doc echoes Greg’s comments saying the project will go out to bid late this month:
Greg Bakos provided an update on the Salem/Windham Rail Trail. VHB submitted comments on January 16th of 2015. NH-DOT was to get back with a response by 3/23/15. This is NH DOT project 16031. A recent request for an additional $9,000 in PE funds and $1000 in construction was approved in late February.
The project has a target ad date of March 24th according to page 6 of this doc:
Greg said construction bids are coming in 20% higher this year than last. He thinks those contractors who weathered the recession are now trying to turn a profit. He’s very nervous about the Salem project.
Alex mentioned the Northern Rail Trail had asked DRED to renew their maintenance agreement. They received a revised maintenance agreement that included language requiring the rail trail group to indemnify the state. He opined that other rail trail groups might not be in such a hurry to request updates to their maintenance agreements on DRED managed rail trail corridors.
Alex reported a technical note. Benches and signs should be 10’ from the centerline of trails.
This is a DRED standard and allows the groomers and maintenance vehicles sufficient room to operate.
Alex also addressed the topic of bridge decks that are narrower than the railings of the bridges, something that occurs repeatedly on sections of the Northern Rail Trail. He wondered if this was a liability. The answer he received back from Chris Gamache that was it was a riders risk if they left the center of the trail. A comparison was made to poison ivy alongside a trail.
That led to Greg Bakos stating the fencing requirements in official engineering book and then saying VHB met with VTRANS on the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail http://lvrt.org/ to discuss fencing requirements. If they went strictly by the guidebook the trail would need miles of railings. The conclusion reached in that case was if the slope had exposed rip-rap or the bottom of the slope was a river then fencing would be required. If the bottom of the slope was a field no fencing needed.
Charles Martin joined the call and reported he would have a new version of his Guide to NH Rail Trails book out in the spring of 2016. He indicated it would be his final version and cover over 50 trails. The lead off trail would be the Granite State Rail Trail.
Tim Blagden mentioned Senate Bill 80
http://gencourt.state.nh.us/
Dave Topham added that the bill had a streaming audio of the senate hearing. The bill passed the senate and is currently in the House Committee of Resources, Recreation and Development.
Next meeting will be May 18th at 7:30 PM. This is one week earlier than usual to avoid Memorial Day.
(Draft notes received from Tim Blagden via email on March 23, 2015, 11:45 pm; distributed by Dave T. on March 24, 2015.)
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