A new $4 million walkway will bridge a trail gap over the Neabsco Creek.
The Prince William County Board of Supervisors awarded the funds to construct a new boardwalk to become part of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, which runs from the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania to the Chesapeake Bay. Thirty-eight miles of the trail run in Prince William County, and while the trail is a National Park Service project, it’s up to the localities in which the trail runs to fund its construction, according to county documents.
About nine miles of the Prince William County portion of the trail is completed, mostly in the southern portion of the county.
The nearly 1-mile long boardwalk will be built in Woodbridge with southern yellow pine boards, and with posts to construct a handrail. The 10-foot wide structure will connect Rippon Landing Community Park with the Julie J. Metz Wetlands Preserve.
Nature Bridges, the winning construction firm, also proposed building the boardwalk using Black Locust timber decking at an increased cost $5.2 million. If county officials chose this material, it would have slowed construction up to 36 months as the company worked to acquire the timber, but, at up to 40 years, it would have doubled the lifespan of the walkway.
In addition to the $3.8 million award to Nature Bridges, the Board also gave $365,600 to Lardner/Klein Landscape Architects, P.C. to pay for the architectural and design work for the walkway.
The Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail is part of a larger, 50-mile trail system across the county that will be incorporated into the locality’s larger transportation grid that includes sidewalks and bike lanes. GPS and on-the-ground surveying have been used to chart the paths of trails in the system.
“We’re no longer agreeable to accept trails that have been donated to us,” said Prince William County Parks and Recreation Director Seth Hendler-Voss. “We have standards now.”
The trails, called Greenways, are currently under development in Broad Run, Catharpin in the west, and the Neabsco and Occoquan greenways in the east. Many of the county trails have been developed and maintained by volunteers with the Prince William County Trails and Streams Coalition.
“We could probably fill a 25-gallon bucket of sweat from the number of volunteers that are on the ground today,” said Hendler-Voss.
