Future Plans
All the Way to Brookfield
This year, thanks to funding authorized by Mayor David Gronbach and the New Milford Town Council, the planning firm of Milone & MacBroom was engaged to determine how to extend the existing 5 mile trail from it’s southern trailhead on Boardman Rd through our historic downtown and onward to the Brookfield Town Line (We hope that our trail will link up with Brookfield’s Still River Greenway at this location). Although much work remains to be done, Milone & MacBroom recently unveiled their conceptual plan for the extension of the trail. Here is a look at it:
NewMilfordTrail_Interim_Report
Map of our proposed 13-mile, town-length New Milford River Trail. (Our thanks to the New Milford Public Works Department for creating this for us).
New Milford River Trail- Overall Conceptual Map-2016
Progress of the Trail:
In the summer of 2016, Mayor Gronbach established the (5) person Bike & Trails Committee to focus on moving this project forward, among other things. For the Agenda and Minutes of this committee go to: Bike & Trails Committee. The committee is working with a planning firm to help with designing and planning the remaining 8 miles of proposed trail.
Young’s Field Riverwalk
In the fall of 2016, the town started another segment of the New Milford River Trail along the riverfront at Young’s Field Park that was completed in the spring of 2017. With $180,000 in funding from the Housatonic River Natural Resources Restoration Settlement Fund (GE Settlement Fund), Landfill Settlement Fund (Waste Management Funds), and our generous supporters, this riverfront recapture project stabilized the embankment at Young’s Field, allowed for invasive overgrowth and dead trees to be removed, native species plantings to be added, along with a fishing dock and benches to take in the new, beautiful view of the Housatonic River, and a 1/4 mile, environmentally-friendly, paved surface to be installed that allows for bikers, walkers, runners, wheelchairs and strollers.
Western New England Greenway
Both of our trails are integral parts of the Western New England Greenway, a multi-segment, multi-state network of mostly on road bike routes that aims to follow the Route 7 Corridor from Long Island Sound to the Canadian Border, now known and designated by AASHTO as US Bike Route 7. Partners of the Western New England Greenway include: Merritt Parkway Trail Alliance, East Coast Greenway, Norwalk River Valley Trail, Still River Greenway, New Milford River Trail, Hou Bike Walk Trail, Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, Lake Champlain Bikeway, Burlington Bike Path, Island Line Trail, and La Route Verte. More information, including “Ride It Now Maps”, is available at http://wnegreenway.org/.
Next Phases
Engineering firm Milone and MacBroom, the planning firm hired to perform a preliminary engineering study of the remaining eight miles of trail, anticipate completing their report by December 2017.
