HANOVER — A popular trail along Mink Brook soon will be closed for five weeks as town officials make a 3,700-foot section fully accessible to wheelchairs under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A section of the River Trail starting at a small parking lot behind an electric substation off Route 10 south of downtown Hanover will be converted from a 1-foot-wide dirt path, and two of the five spots in the parking lot will become handicapped accessible as well.

“Our goal is to construct a 5-foot-wide, hard pack surface to enable full accessibility, and we’re constructing two viewing areas with rest areas to enable people to go out and sit and enjoy the view down the brook and beyond,” Robert Houseman, Hanover’s director of planning, zoning and codes, said on Thursday.

The trail parallels the north side of Mink Brook near its confluence with the Connecticut River and is popular with birders and other nature lovers.

“There are some spectacular views along that corridor. Pine Knoll Cemetery and conservation land is across the brook, and it’s really scenic,” Houseman said.

The parking area and trail are to be closed from Sept. 3 through Oct. 11 as work is conducted. The project is expected to cost $58,000, and Hanover is using some transportation funds already on hand to pay for the work.

The upgrade will end short of the river — roughly across from Hanover’s wastewater treatment plant — because the grade of the trail “changes radically” closer to the Connecticut and would be too difficult and costly to make ADA-compliant.

The River Trail itself runs to a small beach along the Connecticut and then loops back to Maple Street.

Besides being home to birds and other wildlife, the area also has been the stomping grounds of Mink, the black bear sow that has raised a couple litters of cubs in Hanover.

Hanover has gotten permits from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services for the project, and the town’s Conservation Commission also signed off on a wetlands application.

“It’s the most popular trail in town, and there’s been an expressed need for handicapped access, not only wheelchairs but strollers and baby carriages and that sort of thing,” said Jim Kennedy, the Conservation Commission chairman and a landscape architect and wetlands scientist.

Because the existing trail runs along a sewer line that connects to the wastewater plant, “it’s nice and level and easy terrain,” he said.

Bill Mlacak, who chairs the Conservation Commission’s trails committee, said its proximity to downtown was also an asset.

“The big thing is if you work in town, it’s something you can do at lunch,” Mlacak said. “You really have nice views along the water.”

Hanover officials said this will be the first ADA-compliant trail in town, but they expect to upgrade more in the years ahead.

“I’m personally really glad to have an ADA trail in town. I think it’s a great asset, and I’m hoping we can add more in the future,” Mlacak said.

John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com or 603-727-3217.