What would the maintenance of the Squannacook River Rail Trail cost?
The Rails-To-Trail Conservancy recently surveyed 100 open rail trails about their maintenance costs. They found that annual maintenance costs varied from 700 to 2000 dollars per year per mile, depending on the degree of volunteer support. Volunteers can reduce maintenance costs by doing such jobs as cleaning the trail, mowing, and clearing brush and drains. For Townsend’s 2.4 mile section, this would translate to annual maintenance costs between 1400 and 4800 dollars, and Groton’s 0.9 mile section would translate to between 630 and 1800 dollars. This is in line with the costs for the Nashua River Rail Trail. These estimates do not include resurfacing costs, which depend on the type of trail surface. For an asphalt trail, resurfacing is required approximately every 15 years at a cost of about 50,000 dollars per mile, or 165,000 dollars for this trail. The resurfacing cost for a crushed stone trail would be somewhat less. It is possible that some of these maintenance costs could be defra
