Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64LAMOILLE VALLEY RAIL TRAIL REPORT Submitted by Shane Prisby, Trails Manager and LVRT Project Manager If there is one word that can sum up the events with the LVRT in the past year, it is transition.VAST is transitioning from the project being a concept to a reality; from construction to maintenance. The relationship with VTrans has been greatly improving and the support from the general public has been enthusiastic. We are working hard to turn this enthusiasm in to material and financial support for the LVRT. Phases 1A and 1B Construction has finished for the first to sections of the LVRT and we now have almost 33 miles of the trail open for year-round use. When the work was completed and everything closed out, phase 1B (Morristown, Hyde Park, Johnson, and Cambridge) came in $80,000 over the initial contract price and Phase 1A (St. Johnsbury and Danville) was under by $290,000. This represents a net savings of $210,000. The first two sections of trail represented a tremendous learning curve for VAST. Some sections of trail went smoothlyandthedrainagestructuresworkedasplanned. In other areas there were unanticipated problems that needed correction. The area that presented the biggest challenge were structures. The bridges, cattlepasses, and others were installed and repaired differently over the century and a half of the railroad and each required different repairs. This presents VAST with an opportunity to be more efficient with time and money on the future phases of the LVRT. If we can apply some more time and thought in the design phase, we will be able to minimize or avoid costly change orders. The Caledonia and Lamoille County clubs have been giving us great feedback on the new trail. Some areas are now easy for them to groom and require less snow to start the season. In other areas there are narrow spots and other concerns for the clubs. One of the biggest challenges with the trail is that the rail corridor is set in place and cannot change. Some of the existing structures and rail crossings allow for wider trails across their spans, while others will have to be at the minimum clearance.We are listening to concerns from the clubs, as well as what is working and we are looking for creative solutions to make it work for everyone. We are carrying these lessons forward to future sections of the trail and will work closely with the local clubs to make it the best trail possible. Bridge 68 Bridge 68 is a 250’ 4 span bridge over the Lamoille River. It has three wooden piers and one stone center pier. During the spring ice flow, the pier supporting the heaviest spans was severely damaged as several of the wooden pilings were shorn off. The bridge was in danger of collapsing into the Lamoille. VAST worked withVTrans to put together an emergency project to keep the bridge from failing. Through the course of the design phase, the plan changed from a VAST project to temporarily stabilize the bridge into a VTrans project to remove the two spans and the failed pier. The project was bid out and CCS (Contractors Crane Services, Inc) of Morrisville won the bid and will conduct the work in late spring. Once the bridge was removed, VAST hired a Geo Technical company to drill into the riverbed to find out how deep the ledge was. After 150’of drilling, no ledge was found. The cost to replace the wooden piers with new piers able to support the weight and the spring ice flow greatly exceeded the remaining funds from the Federal earmark. We were forced to reconsider our original plan to repair the bridge with the existing spans and new piers. The new plan became to replace the whole bridge with two 125’ pre-fabricated recreation spans and repair the stone center pier. We were operating on a very tight schedule in an attempt to repair the bridge for the snowmobile season. The redesign of the plans added a little bit of time, but not much. The lead time on ordering the new bridge spans would put us into December-January to get them installed.The additional time that this process 20