At the September 26th meeting of the County Legislature’s U&D Corridor Advisory Committee, Peter Karis from Open Space Institute (OSI) presented the findings of a comprehensive engineering study on trail connectivity between Kingston and the Ashokan Rail Trail.
According to OSI, the U&D is a critical future part of the regional trail system, linking the Catskills to a system of multi-use trails that will soon stretch from New Jersey and Orange County to the entire Mid-Hudson region and the Empire State Trail (more than 1,000 miles of multi-use trails when all connections are completed!).
OSI’s report, which was developed by GPI, a full-service civil and environmental engineering firm with 60 offices in 22 states, provides the best argument yet that rail-with-trail is financially infeasible. According to Karis, a side-by-side rail and trail connection from the Ashokan Rail Trail to Kingston would cost 4-5 times greater than trail only. In addition, OSI commissioned Camoin Associates to analyze the economic impact of a Kingston-Ashokan Trail connection in terms of visitation and spending, which projects an additional 100,000+ visits per year, driving $6.5 million more in visitor spending. All told, the study projects over 250,000 total visits, supporting $24 million in sales and nearly $9 million in earnings from over 280 local jobs supported by the expanded trail.
Click the links below to view or download documents from the report.
