Trailblazers

Spring Clean Up - March 19, 2011

It was a nice spring day and over 50 volunteers showed up at Roslyn Landing Park. Armed with tools and liter bags the crews focused on cleaning up trash and litter and the removal of dead tree limbs and brier patches along the river. There were three or four areas along the river that volunteers pulled dead logs and branches out and placed them in piles along the trail for pick up by City trucks. Litter around the pond was picked up and loaded into trash bags for removal.

Thanks to all the volunteers, including several soldiers from Ft. Lee, City staff and CHARTS members for a very special morning. Certainly at the end of the day a clear difference could be seen.

Trail work day brings lots of results

On Saturday March 27th over 30 volunteers spent saturday morning clean and sprucing up the trail area.  Over 30 bags of litter and a half dozen pick up trucks of branches, deadl tree imbs and other stuff were hauled away. in addition several areas were groomed to  help create a new vista or place to sit along the river.  All in all it was a great effort. 

While the trail work was going on, construction of the new entrance to Roslyn landing Park was also underway. The revamped driveway will be moved slightly to the north to avoid the Columbia gas pipeline easement.

Special thanks to the many volunteers and teens that assisted, to the City Department of Public Works work crew, City Officials, including Mayor Davis, Councilman Freeland, Chief Farris and Craig Skalak, Director of Parks and Recreation, and CHARTS members. 

CHARTS will be having a booth at the Fourt Clifton Festival on May 8 and 9.

Phase II of the trail is very close to being ready to bid out. Watch for upcoming announcements.

Work Day Scheduled for Saturday March 27,2010

3/8/10

Louis Johnson, Chairman of CHARTS announced today that there will be a workday on Saturday March 27,2010 from 9:00Am till noon at the site. Interested citizens can assemble at Roslyn Landing Park. Major work tasks include continuing to clear and make usable a special observation area along the River, clearing brush and dead vegetation in an area near Roslyn Landing Park, picking up litter and  debris along a large pond and other activities.

Please bring appropriate work clothes, gloves and tools such as rakes, shovels,  chain saws etc. to assist in this effort. The City of Colonial heights will also provide quipment and a truck will be available to asssit.

For more information please call:

George Schanzenabcher

804 520-9275

Phase 1 Open

On September 25th CHARTS held a ribbon cutting ceremony  officially opening Phase 1 of the trail. There were about 75 people in attendance.  Phase 1 is 2000LF of an 8' wide hard surface trail.

Please check it out! 

Phase 2 is now under final design review and our target date for bidding out the next section is early 2010. This section will start just north of the Hampton Inn and continue to the I-95 bridge- Its about 2700LF. We have securead a VDOT Enhancement grant to cover 80% of the project cost. the balance to be secured from private fund raising and the City of Colonial heights.

Phase 3 from I-95 to the Boulevard is now under design, with a wetlands survey recently completed and final survey work now underway. Phase 3 is about 1-1.5 years away from implementation.

Funding for Phase 4 from the Boulevard west along the river will be applied for this December.

Let us know of your thoughts along the trail. CHARTS will be looking for some smaller local projects to carry out this winter/spring.

George Schanzenabcher

Trail Progress Update- June 9,2009

On May 1st we had the ground breaking for the first phase of trail construction, which will be about 2,000 LF.  As of this date work has been progressing and a good share of the trail base has been put down. This entailed field verification of the alignment and some minor field adjustments to save some large trees.  Its really starting to feel like a trail!  Our initial project has a budget of $130,000. 

We have also gotten approval to begin the detailed engineering for Phase 11, which entails the final design between the I-95 Bridge and the Martin Luther King Bridge at the Boulevard. This effort will probably take us into early next year as there are some wetland issues, how to cross an abandoned RR bed and some other grade and environmental issues.

Workday Scheduled for March 21st

3/12/09  Roslyn Landing Park will be the location of our next workday. The time is Saturday March 21, 2009 from 9am to noon. Our main task will be to remove several dead trees and to clean up the area along the tree line. Please bring equipment,tools and gloves. Light refreshments will be available

We will soon be having the groundbreaking for the start of phase 1 of the trails project and want to have the grounds in good order. On March 10th we recieved bids on phase 1. We had 20 bids on the project. The low bidder was about 25% under our budget. We are now finalizing the review of the bid documents, checking references etc and will soon be able to announce details for Phase 1 construction.  Our tenative groundbreaking is May 1st.

Work on Phase 2 has also begun now that the grant  contract from VDOT has been executed. More details to follow in a few weeks.

Call with any questions: George W. Schanzenbacher, Director Department of Planning and Community Development, City of Colonial Heights. 804 520-9275

CHARTS-the beginning

6/24/2008 Hi All- We have created this blog to keep you current on the project and abreast of activities. Please check back and let us know what you think.

On Saturday June 7th volunteers created about 450' of trail bed starting at the Roslyn Landing Park (northern trail-head). Thanks to the many volunteers, City employees, private suppliers of materials etc. It was a great start. We have included some photos of the day. We are now exploring a second work day, probably in the fall.

Final construction plans for the northern 3,500 lineal feet are progressing nicely and should be completed within the next 30 days. This section starts at Roslyn Landing Park and traverses south to almost the I-95 underpass. The US Army Corp of Engineers has now approved a National wetlands permit for the project. We will now be meeting with the VA trails program staff to review the alignment and discuss other Grant related issues. We have received a grant of $100,000 for this portion of the trail from the VA Trails program of DCR.

Welcome to our new blog!

Trailblazers will be updated on a regular basis with news about the progress of the Colonial Heights Appomattox River Trail System.