On September 18, 2024
Local News

New connections planned for Killington’s multi-use trails

By Brett Yates

The town of Killington will consider a new plan for improving connectivity among its public mountain biking trails. Pedestrians, hikers, and transit riders would also benefit from the proposed infrastructural additions, which aim to link recreational amenities on Route 100 to commercial and community hubs on Route 4.

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, representatives from Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., hosted the last public meeting of the Killington Connecting Trails Scoping Study. 

Courtesy town of Killington
Map shows the most recent planned trail connections along routes 100 and 4.

A team of consultants and public officials have been investigating opportunities to ease passage across the busy highway that bisects the Sherburne Trails singletrack network, whose main starting point — though just 1 1/2 miles north of the Killington post office — currently requires a car for safe access.

Gifford Woods State Park and Kent Pond are even closer to town, but Route 4 and Route 100 are known for fast-moving traffic creating hazardous crossing for anyone on foot or on a bike. 

In the future, new paths, trails, and marked crossings could remedy the problem. According to Project Manager Jenn Conley, feedback from residents at two prior meetings helped shape their prospective design.

“In between, we’ve done a lot of the more technical steps of looking at constraints — [there are] a lot of natural resource constraints in this area that we had to keep in mind. We look at different property ownership,” Conley said. “A number of factors go into how we start from a wide range of alternatives to how we distill down to what becomes the preferred alternative.”

Municipal officials will receive a final report later this month and ask the Killington Select Board for its endorsement. Engineering and construction would take place in a piecemeal process over the course of several years, during which the town would seek various grants to pay for different parts of the plan. Ultimately, the town could end up adopting some components and not others.

“There’s definitely going to be priorities,” Town Planner Lisa Davis Lewis said.

The recommendations include a multi-use path that would connect Killington Road to the Killington Deli & Marketplace via the back side of Killington Sports. It would subsequently cross to the north side of Route 4 and then run parallel to Route 100 to the state park.

Mountain bikers would also have the option of using a revamped logging road to get to Gifford Woods, starting behind the Greenbrier Inn. In the Base Camp Trails section, above the Kent Pond Access Road, there’d be a new trail on the east side of Route 100 that would continue northward and eventually join an existing trail to reach the Sherburne Trails trailhead.

Possibly as soon as next year, that entrance will gain a twin on the opposite side of the road, thanks to a planned spur that will offer a new way for riders to join the Pesky Cairn loop — and connect to the Sherburner, the most popular town trail— from the main (free) Sherburne Trails trailhead. (This summer, Gifford Woods State Park began changing $5 entry for riders accessing trails through its park, which is currently the only way to get to the Sherburner.)

Killington has already secured grant funding for that project. 

“We need to have a structural engineer design a bridge to cross the Tweed River,” Lisa Davis Lewis told the Mountain Times. “We are currently in discussions with several engineers 

Do you want to submit feedback to the editor?

Send Us An Email!

Related Posts

Killington Grand Hotel sale sets new sales record

November 6, 2024
The most expensive interval ownership condominium in Killington was sold by Killington Pico Realty on Nov. 1, for $210,000–one of two interval condominiums in Killington to sell for more than $200,000 in the same week. For perspective, this same interval condominium sold just 16 months ago for $134,000. Krista Mosher and Jessica Posch of Killington…

David Minard

November 6, 2024
11/09/45-01/07/24 Please join us to honor “One of the good guys” November 9th (his birthday) 1:00 p.m. Riverside cemetery Reception following at Sherburne Library

Ceramicist finds home in Hartland

November 6, 2024
By Curt Peterson Amanda Ann Palmer’s ceramics studio seems a “hidden corner of creativity.” She makes her beautiful array of hand-made pottery pieces that range in size from small tree ornament mushrooms and coffee mugs to good-sized fruit bowls. She exhibited her wares at Reading Greenhouse’s crafts fair last weekend, and generally at Long River…

Rutland Beer Works brings the taproom experience to Rutland

November 6, 2024
By James Kent Something exciting’s brewin’ in the RU; take a brief jaunt west a couple of blocks from downtown Rutland to 136 Granger St., and you’ll find a cozy brewery nestled into this mixed-use neighborhood of residences and businesses.The brewery isn’t new to the neighborhood. Rutland Beer Works arrived on the scene nearly a…