Stimulus money will build trail to connect battlefields

Virginia positioned to receive more funds not distributed by other states

By Preston Knight - pknight@nvdaily.com

FISHERS HILL -- The Virginia Department of Transportation has obligated money toward the last of its stimulus-funded projects, which include a bike and pedestrian trail linking the Fishers Hill Battlefield to the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park.

Plans for the trail project, which received $850,000 through the American Restoration and Recovery Act, were announced last year, when about $1 billion worth of infrastructure projects in Virginia received stimulus money. The commonwealth received $694.5 million in highway funding under the special legislation, and was required to have its allocation obligated by Tuesday, according to a VDOT news release.

The Federal Highway Administration approved obligating funding on the department's final project this week, it states, and by meeting the deadline, Virginia is positioned to accept additional stimulus funding not obligated by other states.

Around the Northern Shenandoah Valley, VDOT obligated funds for bridge repair on the Senseny Road overpass in Frederick County (more than $1 million); pavement restoration and rehabilitation along four miles of Interstate 66 in Warren County ($1.4 million); and improvements to four roads in Shenandoah County, including Old Schoolhouse and Zepp roads.

Of those projects, the Warren County one is complete, according to VDOT.

The Fishers Hill trail, the department states, is slated to be awarded for construction in September 2011. The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation has been working on the project, including having a management committee meet. Its members include Pam Sheets, Shenandoah County's director of parks and recreation, and Strasburg Town Councilwoman Sarah Mauck.

Beth Stern, the foundation's director of policy and communications, said the trail will be about 10-12 miles long, connecting protected areas of the battlefield to one another and then sending visitors to the boundary of Cedar Creek and Belle Grove. It's designed for non-motorized traffic.

It's yet to be determined if the path, a $1.3 million project that officials have said was to also receive another $400,000 from federal transportation grants, will be paved. Stern said there are a number of benefits to its existence regardless.

"It allows people another way to move around the landscape," she said. "It brings jobs [construction and contractors]. Ultimately, it provides a way to build community."

The trail carries national significance, too, Stern added, by enhancing and promoting historic sites.

Elizabeth McClung, executive director of Belle Grove Plantation, said she has not been involved in developing the trail, but she is all for it.

"Anything that links historic sites is an important thing to do," she said.