Dutchess Trailways update

23. June 2009 by Kevin.

6-23-09

DUTCHESS RAIL TRAIL

6-19-09 town of Poughkeepsie - at Overocker Rd. - seeds that were planted now growing grass - at the south end there is a concrete barier and a permanent metal street sign type post and metal sign that says TRAIL CLOSED - at north side there was no barels or yellow caution tape blocking RT - the pavement is complete from this point northward - RT appears open
6-23-09 Tue. I had mentioned to someone that the RT is open and I had ridden the RT to behind the Stop & Shop off rt. 44 but they had said they had ridden the RT further north and the pavement was not complete - with a break in the weather I rode up to Grand Ave. in the town of Poughkeepsie to see what was going on - I had seen that a crossing on the south side (toward Overocker et al.) had been completed - this is like the crossing at Overocker but there is no parking lot - there are those concrete islands and, now with stripeing completed, I can see that this is to split the RT into 2 lanes - a northbound lane and a southbound lane - the main RT is double wide like the Hudson Valley RT in Highland (that one does not have the sophisticated road crossings as does the DRT) - about like a country road I had talked to one of the workers and he had confirmed they had just paved a section not yet paved yesterday and that the RT is now completely paved from Morgan lake - the northern terminus to Overocker Rd. - there is still much landscape type work being done - wood rail fencing, seeding etc. - I rode from Grand Ave. to Overocker Rd. at the south end of the parking lot - it is 1.6 mi.
here are some of the things I had seen:
at Grand Ave. - one can see an old RR signal - there are 2 concrete bases for some sort of light? perhaps a ped Xing TCL?
wood rail fencing at some of the properties along the RT ROW and at the Van Wagner Rd. overpass
there is a new concrete “deck” on the Van Wagner overpass - I had noticed a heavy wood Christian cross in the middle of the overpass ? - I had also noticed there is no exit/entrance going down to Van Wagner Rd. - there is also no official exit/entrance to-from the Stop&Shop - as per the town of Poughkeepsie meeting plans there was suposed to be an exit/entrance - however there is an un-official exit/entrance to-from the RT at the top of Love road - the south entrance to the rt. 44 Stop & Shop plaza - at the top of Love Rd. there is a short section of dirt road that goes up to the RT ROW - I had noticed a concrete barrier - hopefuly when work is complete this un-official exit/entrance will remain open

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