Sunrise Trail Construction Could Start by Year's End

June 28, 2007 - by Letitia Baldwin - Reprinted with permission of The Ellsworth American

ELLSWORTH — There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Plans to construct the 85-mile Down East Sunrise Trail are moving full steam ahead and the $2.55 million construction project could commence before year's end.

The Maine Department of Conservation has found a source for the majority of funds and chosen an engineering firm to help design the Down East Sunrise Trail stretching from Hancock and Pembroke. The central Maine firm, Plymouth Engineering Inc., already has been picked to write the bid package for the railroad track and ties removal and help MDOC engineers design the four-season recreational trail.

David Rodrigues, an MDOC planner who has helped develop the trail project, says the MDOC and Maine Department Of Transportation commissioners recently signed an agreement freeing up $931,000 from an old MDOT bond for the Calais Branch line project. He said the funds, which are intended for rail corridor maintenance, will become available in July. He expects Plymouth Engineering to begin engineering work next month.

"Late summer or early fall, we may be able to start removing tracks and ties and start construction of the trail" he predicted Friday.

Meanwhile, Charles Corliss, who lives in Cherryfield and worked for the Maine Land Use Regulatory Commission (LURC) for 18 years, has been hired as the MDOC's new recreational trails coordinator. He has been out identifying steep slopes, major washouts and other trouble spots along the rail corridor for the engineers. He said the railbed will be graded to a 12-foot travel surface after the track and ties are removed.

Corliss, a Cherryfield native who is active in ATV Maine (Alliance of Trail Vehicles of Maine), has ridden on multiuse recreational trails, which were created on abandoned railbeds, in Presque Isle and between Newport and Dover-Foxcroft.

"I have seen it as a major boon to those areas," Corliss said last week. He expects the Down East Sunrise Trail to boost the Down East region’s economy, too. "It will make a connector for all the north-south trails that we have."

In April, the Legislature's Appropriations Committee killed the Trails for a Healthy Maine Bond put forth by Sen. Dennis Damon (D-Hancock County). The $10 million bill would have partially covered the cost to convert the Calais Branch line railbed into a four-season recreational trail. Despite the setback, the $1.3 million in revenue estimated from the rails' sale will cover a chunk of the Down East Trail project and the difference made up through the MDOT bond balance.

On National Trail Day earlier this month, the Sunrise Trail Coalition held a rally drawing 100 members from Hancock and Washington counties to the old railroad station in Machias. Machias Town Manager Betsy Fitzgerald welcomed the crowd to Station 98, which is being restored. Damon, Acadia National Park staffer Julie Isbill and Maggie Warren of the East Coast Greenway Alliance and other speakers reaffirmed their support for the Hancock-Pembroke trail. An all-terrain vehicle, towing a trailer with snowmobiles and snowmobile groomers, and dozens of hikers and cyclists staged a parade up Main Street. At Whitney's Tool Shed, Sunrise coalition member Dave Whitney hosted a free lunch for participants.