Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Eagle Scout Project: Josh Kreitler's Blue Trail Extension

Here's another one of the many Eagle Scout projects completed in 2013. Josh Kreitler was responsible for building an extension to the Blue Trail (future Paugussett Trail), about 1/3 mile in length, from the powerlines near John Dominick Drive south to Buddington Road. Some photos of the new route were posted a few months ago. 

Constructing the bridge.
The trail extension included a significant wetland crossing, which is why this trail was not built previously. The problem was solved by using telephone poles to cross the gap, with planking attached.  Getting the hefty poles through the woods and into place was not easy.
Nice way to start a hike.

Nice job!

As an aside, the new trail section was built more or less as depicted in this plan from several years ago, when UI was selling the land alongside the powerlines:

The trail as built
At the time, one of our local developers was hoping to purchase the land to complete a block of land for a subdivision. The City of Shelton had the 'right of first refusal' because it was land from a public utility, and the Conservation Commission recommended the City purchase it for open space, which was done.  The second plan shows how the trail would have looked if the City had not purchased the land and the twelve proposed homes had been built (the two homes on the right are in the final stages of construction, but the rest of the proposal is dead).

Homes and trail under an earlier proposal.

3 comments:

  1. Nice Post. I liked how Josh organized his team to buggylug those telephone poles down to the swamp. I also liked how the Aldermen voted to keep the open space rather than sell it off for houses on that corner.

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  2. Good job of showing the scout project and counter-factual history

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  3. Good Post.
    Well done Josh.
    Thank you Aldermen for following the CC recommendation.

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