GORHAM – Preliminary plans for a new multi-purpose recreational trail leading toward Westbrook from Gorham Village were unveiled Tuesday in a public meeting.
Following a former railroad bed, the 1.6-mile trail would start at New Portland Road in Gorham Village and cross Libby Avenue, continuing to Hutcherson Drive in the Gorham Industrial Park near the Westbrook city line. The trail would be available for walking, hiking, bicycling, skiing and snowmobiles. ATVs would be prohibited.
Philip Gagnon, chairman of the Gorham Town Council, said after the meeting the wooded trail would be an unobstructed run to Westbrook. Gagnon hopes the trail would lead to a trail network in Gorham.
“It’s a wonderful project,” Gagnon said.
BH2M, a Gorham engineering firm, is developing the trail design for the Maine Department of Transportation project.
“We’re in early design stages of this project,” Andrew Morrell, a BH2M project engineer, said.
Morrell said plans call for a 10-foot-wide, paved trail with 1-foot gravel shoulders on each side along the old Boston and Maine Railroad line. The project would include extending a sidewalk 800 feet on the northerly side of New Portland Road and also extending a sidewalk 400 feet on the westerly side of Libby Avenue.
In 2014, the town will seek state funds to construct the trail. Bob Burns, director of Gorham Public Works Department, said in Tuesday’s meeting no construction funding has been allocated as yet.
“Hopefully, we can get it done,” Gorham Zoning Administrator David Galbraith said after Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s a neat project.”
A Buxton resident, George Robicheau, said his family owns five acres in Gorham abutting the rail trail and has concerns about the trail impacting access to their property. Robicheau also worried about littering issues.
Gorham received state approval for $21,000 in a federally funded project for preliminary design work for the trail, but Burns expected costs to come in lower. The town’s share of designing costs would run 20 percent.
The trail hinges on the town receiving an easement from Danny Shaw of Shaw Brothers Construction Inc., which owns a stretch of the old railroad bed. The town owns the section from Libby Avenue to Hutcherson Drive.
The trail will be along the railroad bed where the first train service to Gorham began on Feb. 5, 1851, according to the Gorham Historical Society. The line was built as the York and Cumberland Railroad and later became known as the Portland and Rochester Railroad.
A Gorham property owner, George Robicheau of Buxton, foreground, reviews plans for a Gorham rail trail with engineer Andrew Morrell of BH2M, left, and David Galbraith, Gorham zoning administrator. Send questions/comments to the editors.
