HANOVER — The town is making a path along the Girl Brook more accessible to safely connect residents to the downtown area and allow for recreation all year long, set for completion by October.
The Girl Brook Path– which starts at Verona Road and goes through the woods out to Reservoir Road– is a wooded trail that the town has opted to construct into a multi-use stone-dust path. The project includes a timber bridge and several culvert crossings.
The path will be approximately 15,700 feet long, or nearly three miles, and 8 feet wide. Stone dust ground is also featured throughout the Northern Rail Trail starting east toward Enfield.
The Town of Hanover contracted Timber and Stone LLC, an East Montpelier-based trail building company, to build the Girl Brook Multi-Use Path for a total of $269,000. The project, previously to be funded by an NHDOT federal grant, is now paid for entirely by the town and donations.
“We may have an opportunity to use it at some future date,” Houseman said of the grant.
The project is expected to take four to six weeks. There will be no impact to public streets, said Houseman, but the trail itself may experience closures and construction equipment in various areas.
The goal of the project is to connect multiple Hanover neighborhoods to the downtown area, and to the middle and elementary school. It also connects Rugby Field and Fieldhouse to the Dartmouth College area.
Houseman anticipates use by commuters going to work and shopping, students who want to avoid high-volume streets, and recreational users exercising. The trail also links to Storrs Pond and Oak Hill.
“So you can envision it being that conduit to those facilities,” Houseman said, adding that Storrs Pond sees 50,000 visitors a year.
The project goes back to a larger concept plan from approximately 10 years ago to connect the North end of town to the South end as an off-road pass. But this project started to get momentum in 2020, and has been in the design and permitting stage for the last year and a half.
Dartmouth College owns the majority of the land, and the town had a pedestrian easement.
“Dartmouth was especially supportive of the project, including endorsing it from the President’s Office,” said Houseman.
Construction crews are mobilizing this week, said Houseman.
The Valley News will be reporting on accessible trails across the Upper Valley.
