Passaic County and local officials broke ground Friday on the first phase of the Highlands Rail Trail in Wanaque.
“The trail is going to provide a safe way for access between neighborhoods, schools, and many retail options including grocery, restaurants and services,” said Passaic County Commissioner Director John Bartlett, who represents the County on the NJTPA’s Board of Trustees. “This is part of a larger project, and in fact the Highlands Rail Trail Feasibility Study was completed in 2017 to contemplate the possibility of as many as five phases, of which this is just phase one.”
This phase, funded with a $1.8 million Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside Grant previously awarded by the NJTPA Board, will stretch 1.72 miles from Union Avenue to F.A. Orechio Drive/Ringwood Avenue. The project is expected to be completed next year, Bartlett said.
The 10-foot-wide pedestrian and bicycle-friendly path is being built on the former New York and Greenwood Lake Railway right-of-way in northern Passaic County.
The NJTPA is also providing $1.6 million in funding toward Phase II of the project, which is under design and expected to break ground next year, through its Transportation Clean Air Measures Program. Phase II includes installing a rapid flashing beacon pedestrian crossing at Ringwood Avenue and continues to Conklin Town Road in Wanaque. The trail would run adjacent to Wanaque Elementary School, the Hagstrom Field athletic complex and Lakeland Regional High School.
Bartlett said if completed, the fives phases would create a nearly 8-mile trail from Wanaque to the Monksville Reservoir and Stonetown Road in Ringwood, with a spur trail going to Ringwood Manor.
“When you get something started is when people can begin to envision what it might be and whereas we look behind us now and see an old empty rail bed, in a year or so you’re going to see 1.7 miles of trail where you can walk and bike and enjoy the outdoors, on a beautiful day like today,” Bartlett said. “That’s going to be a vision I think is going to help us move through those other phases, get buy-in from folks, because how amazing would it be to be able to ride that bike all the way up to Ringwood Manor from where we are right here.”