Repairs underway on Westmoreland Heritage Trail after flooding
Now this week, work is underway to repair this community favorite, especially parts of the trail that run along Turtle Creek.
For Bryan Dawson, the trail is a weekly escape, but he says he was a little worried when his favorite walking path was flooded last week.
"We've seen it before," said Dawson. "If you go about a mile, you can see how the force of nature strips the gravel right off. You can see the foliage beat down, and you can imagine you don't want to be down here when the weather is bad."
But on Friday, Dawson and others were back on the trail as trucks carrying debris from the recent flooding could be seen coming and going. The cleanup and project to fix the damage on the trail began on Thursday morning in the stretch of trail that runs between Trafford and Export.
Stan Rudge, the president of the Westmoreland Heritage Trail, spoke with KDKA by phone about the damage.
"That section of trail is only about 9.5 to 10 miles long, and we have at least one mile of it where the surface preparation has been deteriorated, seriously, down to the (surface) below the fine limestone," said Rudge.
Rudge went on to say that he is grateful for both the volunteer crews that have come out to work and the paid crews from local municipalities. He says his organization has allocated some $20,000 for repairs and cleanup, and now they are raising funds again to help keep the trail viable.
"The whole trail is going to need resurfaced. So, there is going to be some large expenses done on that. We are getting the trail back to being usable, but to be the trail that it was is going to take a large funding amount," Rudge said.
Anyone who would like to join or donate to the Westmoreland Heritage Trail Association can find more information online.
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