Jim Bucar saw this sign recently in Scarborough, and stopped to snap a photo.
Rodgers Ski and Sport is a constant supporter of the Eastern Trail, and we very much appreciate their support.. Thus we want to recognize and boost their efforts, as they have been advertising and boosting our efforts. Thank you, Rodgers!
MaineDOT Commissioner Bernhardt signed a new policy on June 14th, 2014 that outlines important elements of Maine’s improved project planning and development processes. Complete Streets policies have a foundation in federal law, guidance, and best practices, and have been signed into law or policy in states and communities throughout the nation.
The MaineDOT Complete Streets Policy, developed in 2013 and 2014 through extensive internal and external stakeholder processes, outlines how MaineDOT and its project partners will consider the needs of all users when planning and developing projects. The intent of this policy is to help ensure that all users of Maine’s transportation system—our customers—including bicyclists, pedestrians, people of all ages and abilities, transit users, and motor vehicle users, have safe and efficient access to the transportation system.
The Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) has a long history of providing for the needs of all modes of travel in the planning, programming, design, rehabilitation, maintenance, and construction of the state’s transportation system. This policy is intended to improve Maine’s project delivery processes to help improve and maintain a safe, reliable, and efficient transportation system that supports the mobility and economic needs of our state.
The Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) has a long history of providing for the needs of all modes of travel in the planning, programming, design, rehabilitation, maintenance, and construction of the state’s transportation system. This policy is intended to improve Maine’s project delivery processes to help improve and maintain a safe, reliable, and efficient transportation system that supports the mobility and economic needs of our state.
The following is a link to the policy:
The following is a link to the MaineDOT Complete Streets web page, which also has links to many related policies, laws, rules, guides, and training programs.
http://www.maine.gov/mdot/completestreets/
Dan Stewart
MaineDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager
Bureau of Planning
Outreach Division
Maine Department of Transportation
16 State House Station
Augusta ME 04333
207-624-3252
E-mail: dan.stewart@maine.gov
Web:http://www.maine.gov/mdot/bikeped/
The Discovering the Southern Eastern Trail Monthly Ride Series will be held every 3rd Saturday in summer 2014. The first ride was held June 23. Some pictures from that ride appear below:
By Alex Acquisto, Staff Writer
ARUNDEL — The board of selectmen approved the installation of six to eight parallel parking spaces on the west side of Limerick Road, near the juncture of the Eastern Trail.
The juncture lies southeast of town hall, between the respective intersections of Limerick and Mountain roads, and Limerick and Campground roads.
There is designated parking for the Eastern Trail in the corner of the town hall parking lot; however, the walk to the actual trailhead is somewhat precarious due to the narrow road and minimal shoulder.
“Walking from the town hall parking lot to the trail, we got a lot of comments about safety,” said Town Manager Todd Shea. “Since we don’t have a sidewalk, we thought we’d allow parking there.”
Reconsidering the municipal ordinance started last year, when illegal parking at the entrance of the Eastern Trail was anticipated to cause safety issues due to the road’s slightly elevated curve.
In February, Roger Taschereau, director of the public works department, voiced the possibility of installing a handful of gravel parking spaces on the shoulder of Limerick Road near the Eastern Trail — a venture likely to cost about $1,900.
Last summer the town of Arundel received a grant for participating in community-healthy activities after residents participated in a rural active living assessment conducted by the Coastal Healthy Communities Coalition. The grant is to be used for activities that promote healthy living, Shea said in February. The town has been encouraged to spend that money — approximately $1,500 — to build parking spaces, Shea said.
Gravel parking spots, factoring in the use of grant money plus the cost of gravel, would cost approximately $400.
Read the entire article online here
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Since the summer of 2013, Russ Lamer has led “loop and lunch rides” on the Eastern Trail. Each has offered a loop ride on either (or both!) the off-road or on-road sections of the trail, as well as a refreshing restaurant lunch along the route.
Read about previous rides further below on this page.
Schedule for Eastern Trail Loop & Lunch Rides 2019:
June 8th…This ride started at Bug Light in South Portland taking the ET Greenway to Wainwright field then continued on the road on Highland Avenue to Black Point Road to Prout’s Neck, back to 77, right at Sprague Hall down to the Sprague estate entrance and back to 77 and then to Two Lights and back to 77. We stopped at C-Salt for lunch before returning to Bug Light.
August 24th…The August 24th ET Loop & Lunch Ride was a lot of fun, and filled with unusual happenings. The group of 18 riders started out at Thornton Academy on the Eastern Trail, and 16 ended up at Bug Light before going to Scratch Bakery in South Portland for lunch. One rider dropped off from the group at Pin Point Road and the Scarborough Marsh; and our Sweep’s computer mount broke and he had to back track to find it, and therefore ended his ride (by the way, he never found it). After a delicious lunch, we had a great ride back. Only one flat tire on our return trip…but everyone was smiles when we arrived at the Thornton Academy parking lot. Perfect day for riding.
September 28th…This ride will be a Kittery to South Berwick loop on the Eastern Trail. Look for meet up location and more details to come.
October 19th…This is the annual Tweed or Crazy Sweater Ride that starts at Wainwright Field in South Portland, crosses the Scarborough Marsh on the ET then we take the road into Old Orchard Beach to Route 9 Camp Ellis and on to Saco to have lunch at Cia. After lunch we return to Wainwright on the ET.
Check in time begins at 9 a.m. and rides start at 9:30 a.m. Requirements: wear helmet, bring your own water and bottle(s), be able to ride 30 plus miles, ride an average speed of 12 to 15 mph, bring money for lunch, and have fun.
The rides are capped at 25 so please contact Russ Lamer at crankoneta@gmail.com before a ride date to let him know you are riding.
Requirements:
Examples of Some Past Loop & Lunch Rides
June 7, 2014 – 20 riders turned out for the first Loop & Lunch ride of 2014. The weather was perfect with plenty of sunshine and just the right amount of summer breeze. Riders started on the Eastern Trail at Black Point and Eastern Roads in Scarborough then rode along the scenic coast through Old Orchard Beach to Camp Ellis then up Route 9 into Saco.
Lunch was at Run of the Mill Restaurant in Saco, and what an outstanding job the restaurant did waiting on the Loop & Lunch Bunch. Laura our waitress deserves one big medal for doing a superb job on taking orders and delivering everyone’s food all at the same time. The service and food were an A+!
On the return trip, everyone worked up enough of an appetite for a stop at Bayley’s Ice Cream on Pine Point Road in Scarborough before crossing the marsh back to the parking lot.
August 29, 2015 – The most recent Loop & Lunch Bunch ride was another perfect day, and a fun 38 mile ride for the ET Loop & Lunch Bunch. Fourteen riders started at the Eastern Trail at the Biddeford Medical Center, and took the off-road trail to Kennebunk. From there we took the on-road ET to Wells.
Lunch was at The Seed & Bean Restaurant.
Great rides, great people, great food! Look for details to come on the next ET Loop & Lunch Bunch Ride.
Photos provided by group ride photographer Bob Bernoth.
By Michael Kelley, Staff Writer. May 30, 2014, The Scarborough Leader.
Officials from the Eastern Trail Management District have long dreamed of a time when a bicyclist, runner or walker could continuously travel off-road from the Piscataqua River in Kittery to Casco Bay in South Portland. Now, thanks to funding from the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System (PACTS), that dream is a little bit closer to happening.
The communities of Scarborough and South Portland recently received $350,000 from PACTS to extend the Eastern Trail from Pleasant Hill Road in Scarborough to Wainwright Field in South Portland. The .8 mile trail, once completed, will go from Wainwright Field through the woods past Prouts Pond along Central Maine Power property before connecting to Pleasant Hill Road.
“We have advertised this as a trail between Kittery and Casco Bay and with this, now we are getting closer and closer to making that a reality,” said Eastern Trail Management District President Tad Redway.
The Eastern Trail passes through a dozen communities in York and Cumberland counties and is part of the East Coast Greenway, a 2,900-mile corridor that spans Maine to Florida.
Scarborough Town Planner Dan Bacon said the total cost of the project is $531,000. The remainder of the funding comes from money South Portland had already set aside for trail expansion.
“There was already money waiting to be used, but not enough for the entire .8 miles,” Bacon said.
Bacon said the plan is to finalize designs and get permitting approval this summer and fall and start construction in late fall or early winter. The money, Bacon said, was not supposed to be available for another year or two, but given the fact money had already been appropriated and PACTS had some money left over in its fiscal budget, the organization decided to use some of that money to fund the project.
The trail expansion project, Bacon said, coincides with a two-year project by the Maine Department of Transportation and the Scarborough Department of Public Works to reconstruct Pleasant Hill Road and make it more pedestrian friendly.
Read the entire article online here
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By Shelby Carignan, Staff Writer. Friday, May 30, 2014. The Forecaster.
SCARBOROUGH — Officials confirmed that the town has received enough funding to begin closing the gap in the Eastern Trail between South Portland and Scarborough.
Though the $376,000 from the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System will not complete the 1.5-mile section from the Nonesuch River in Scarborough to Wainwright Athletic Complex in South Portland, it green-lights construction on a smaller segment just under a mile long from Wainwright to Pleasant Hill Road.
Construction will likely begin late this year or early in 2015.
Nearly a third of the pedestrian and bike trail, which extends 65 miles from Bug Light Park in South Portland to Kittery, is completely off-road, according to Robert Hamblen, president of the Eastern Trail Alliance. The ultimate goal is to connect the entire trail via pedestrian pathways.
The segment from Arundel to South Portland is 85 percent off-road, with the two most prominent interruptions remaining between Saco and Biddeford, and Scarborough and South Portland. The Maine Department of Transportation has studied plans to close those gaps, and determined that both require bridges.
“Both of them are expensive, but we firmly believe both will happen,” Hamblen said. “They’ve just both been laying there waiting for funding to make it possible.”
Read the entire article online here.
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Nearly 20 years of expansion has proven successful, and more is on the way.
Sunday, May 25, 12:01 A.M.
Pennsylvania trail guru Carl Knoch said it takes decades to build an off-road, long-distance bike path through urban areas.
In southern Maine it’s been nearly 17 years since the Eastern Trail was launched. And as we close in on two decades of work, the effort behind this urban trail has gained ground, quite literally.
I can attest to that, having spent the past decade waiting for the Eastern Trail Alliance, the nonprofit behind the trail’s development, to make it worth my while as a long-distance cyclist.
Four years ago the Eastern Trail Alliance founder, John Andrews, promised me they’d get me an off-road commuter route from my home in Kennebunkport to Portland. True to his word, it happened a year later when the Eastern Trail bicycle-and-pedestrian bridges were built over Route 1 and Interstate 95, and five miles of trails were added between Kennebunk and Old Orchard Beach.
Andrews and his band of bicyclists have proven relentless. And this summer they’re not slowing as they fan out across this trail that now covers 20.7 miles to conduct an economic-impact study to help build support to expand the trail to Wells, South Berwick, Eliot and Kittery.
Not bad for an idea formed less than two decades ago.
In 2001, when I arrived at the Maine Sunday Telegram, all that existed of the trail was a 5-mile section in South Portland. But there was talk of expanding it as far as Kittery. And all I could think was, how likely is that?
On the other hand, you had to agree it was a good idea. So Staff Photographer Greg Rec and I saddled up our road bikes with reporting and photography equipment, and set out to cover the 70-plus miles of the proposed trail that had just been marked along the roads that followed the proposed off-road route.
We started at dawn from the Route 1 bridge over the Piscataqua River in Kittery and rode to dusk, taking photographs along the way and finishing at Bug Light in South Portland, where an editor ferried us back to our cars. Then as we each drove north from the Piscataqua River as the sun set, I worried we’d both fall asleep at the wheel. But I also recalled the sight of old barns, rocky brooks, wildflower fields and birch tree groves. Suddenly I saw this crazy idea anew.
Read the Entire Article Online Here.
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Monday May 19, 2014 marks ten years since ground was broken for construction of the Scarborough Marsh section of the Eastern Trail. The project was managed under the direction of the 12-town Eastern Trail Management District in partnership with many organizations including the Town of Scarborough. That section has generated amazing public support for the Eastern Trail.
Could anyone with their groundbreaking shovels in hand have imagined what would be accomplished in the following ten years?
Congratulations and many thanks to the hundreds, and thousands who believed in and supported the Eastern Trail vision and have worked so hard to continue building the first 21 miles of our off-road trail. Since that historic day, we have truly demonstrated that “if you build it, they will come.”
Several Eastern Trail leaders, and visionaries, who led the efforts to get this project designed, funded, and off the ground, gathered on the Scarborough Marsh bridge on May 19 to mark the 10th anniversary (all photos by Jim Bucar):
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Posted: Wednesday, April 30, 2014 3:56 pm | By Kayla J. Collins kayla@keepmecurrent.com |
OLD ORCHARD BEACH – The next phase of developing 72 acres near the intersection of Portland Avenue and Milliken Mills Road in Old Orchard Beach as a multi-use forestry space and public recreational area is under way.
The Town Council has accepted a $2,802 bid from stewardship forester Parker Forestry Associates, North Berwick, to inventory the property and create a Forest Management Plan that would include a description of land ownership objectives and what can be done to improve the site.
In January, the town received a matching grant for about $8,000 from Project Canopy and the Maine State Forest Service to help extend the network of recreational trails in the community, and to preserve 68 acres of land off Portland Avenue as wildlife habitat, according to Conservation Commission member Kimbark Smith, who is also the project manager for what has been dubbed the Milliken Mill Woods project.
Design and construction of the trails, which includes painting a crosswalk to connect the properties and erecting kiosks, will depend upon the help of volunteers and in-kind donations, Smith said.
Along with the Conservation Commission, other partners in the Milliken Mill Woods project include the Eastern Trail Alliance, Saco Bay Trails, the Ocean Park Conservation Society, the Pathway Alternative Education Program of Old Orchard Beach High School and the Bicycling Coalition of Maine.
This is the second major project the Conservation Commission has undertaken to expand Old Orchard Beach’s trail system, said Mark Koenigs, project manager for the Easter Trail Connector Sub Committee.
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