Hudson Valley Rail Trail - phase 2 construction

06-25-10

June 2010 - the Hudson Valley RT is just feet away from the Walkway OTH

the new side trail at rt 9W

  When I had gotten to the west end of the Walkway,I had seen that the barricade had been moved to the side.There was a mound of fill dirt and gravel just feet away from the very west end of the WOTH state park.I had seen that there is no bridge yet over the ROW / RT-yet-to-be at Mile Hill Road. There is still that pre-fab tunnel. There was a bit of some additional concrete retaining wall / portal form and re-bar work.There was no activity at Vineyard Ave. There was quite a bit of activity at Commercial Ave., though.A worker waved me past so that I could continue on to the old, partialy open, section of the RT. They were clearing an area much wider than the paved path part of the RT. The Hudson Valley Rt is a double wide RT. Half is paved and is  a 12 foot wide bike-pedestrian path The other half is not paved, and is intended for Equestrain use.

  As I was about to leave the east end area of the (open phase 1) RT,I saw a box truck aproaching from the Commercial Ave. end through the construction area. I had seen an explosives sign on the front of the truck. A BMW with the custom liscense plates “PYRO PRO” followed behind the truck. I had thought,briefly at first,that this truck might be going to the construction area on the old - phase 1 section of the RT where there is an old tunnel being removed. A bit of wishful thinking on my part to speed up the process so that the existing RT would not be split in 2 sections, and that New Paltz Rd. - the Atlantic Coast Route - would be open. I had thought it odd though, that if this were true,why were they driving the truck all the way from the very east end and not access the RT from New Paltz Rd. near to the construction area on the RT? After the truck passed, I began to ride west to the aforementioned construction area on the RT. I shortly came upon an area of the RT with yellow caution tape across the whole width of the RT. A worker pulled back a section of the caution tape to let the truck into the area. I would find out the truck was carying fireworks, and a fireworks shell launching area was being set up. As it was a week before the big day for such pyrotechnics,this must be for a church carnival fireworks show. The RT, more or less,passes behind the Catholic church’s athletic field and school where the carnival would be.

fireworks displayed during the Walkway grand opening ceremony - 10/02/09

This entry was posted on 28. June 2010 at 20:39 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.