Community Corner

Barnegat Branch Trail Expands As New Signs Go Up

A two-mile section of trail in Berkeley was officially opened Thursday as interpretive signs detailing the area's history are installed in Barnegat

It’s been a big week for the Barnegat Branch Trail.

A new two-mile section of the along the bed of an abandoned line of the old Central Railroad of New Jersey was officially opened yesterday in Berkeley Township, days after freeholders announced bidding will start on the fourth phase of the trail.

And trail users in Barnegat this week will have noticed new additions: interpretive signs that offer a window into the park’s past as a transportation hub along the Jersey Shore.

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As he spoke to county officials and trail supporters yesterday alongside the new trail section off Serpentine Road in Berkeley, Ocean County Freeholder James F. Lacey said the county saw the value of keeping the 15.6-mile right-of-way intact when it bought the land in 2007.

“If it was not preserved by us, it would be gone forever,” he said. Now, the county is a step closer to its vision for the park: a contiguous trail built for walking, running and biking that stretches from Barnegat to Toms River.

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The trail sections are linked by their common history, and the newly added interpretive signs are a way to share that history with trail users, said the freeholders. In Barnegat, new signs are illustrated with black-and-white photos and explain the Central Railroad’s role in Ocean County’s past and the recent efforts to give the land new life as a park.

The latest stretch of crushed-gravel path extends from William Dudley Park to Maryland Avenue in Berkeley Township, crossing Cedar Creek, passing through pine forest and running alongside residential neighborhoods. Currently, it's not connected to the southern section of the trail, which runs from Burr Street in Barnegat to Route 532 in Waretown, but the county is planning to fill in the gaps in coming years.

“I think it gives everyone a great appreciation for nature, a great appreciation for what we have,” said Freeholder Director Joseph H. Vicari before joining others to cut a ribbon strung between two bicycles resting on their kickstands in the trail parking lot. “We have to ensure people can enjoy what we had 50 years ago growing up in Ocean County.”

Lacey said the county paid about $750,000 for the property in 2007, and besides planning and design, most of the costs of trail project has been supported by grants. The Berkeley section cost $545,031, much of which came from a Bikeway Safety grant from the state Department of Transportation, said county spokeswoman Donna Flynn.

“These grant dollars are out there,” said Lacey. “If we don’t get them, someone else will.”

This week, freeholders announced the county will go out for bids July 6 for the trail’s fourth phase, a 1.5-mile section from Route 532 in Waretown to just south of Oyster Creek near Lacey Township. The cost will be around $440,000, said Lacey, most of which will be covered by another DOT grant. Construction will likely be completed next spring, he said.

Meanwhile, the future of the trail in Lacey Township is still a subject of debate. The township owns the trail right-of-way through Lacey, and has challenged the Department of Environmental Protection for the right to build a Route 9 bypass along the rail bed.

The Lacey Rail Trail Environmental Committee has been fighting against the road plan and pushing for the old rail line to be used solely as a bike and walking path. Member Alison Lemke attended the Berkeley ribbon cutting with sign in hand: “Save it, don’t pave it.”

Lacey Township’s challenge to the DEP’s original rejection of the bypass plan is a waste of taxpayer money, said Lemke. “They’re spending hundreds of thousand of dollars to fight this,” she said of the township.

But Freeholder Lacey said regardless of the outcome of the road debate, the Barnegat Branch Trail will eventually make its way through the township. The goal, after all, is to allow residents to hop on the trail at one end and walk, run or ride for almost 16 straight miles.

“It doesn’t work to have a bifurcated park,” he said.


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