Members of the Guelph to Goderich Trail made a presentation to Huron County council at their last meeting.
Chris Lee is the Chair of the Trail Advisory Committee. He says their most immediate project right now is a drainage ditch between Auburn and Blyth, but that's fully funded and they're just waiting for approvals so they can start that.
Lee says their next big project is putting a tunnel under road 25 to replace the old overpass.
"The old overpass was back-filled a number of years ago. We see that one as a safety issue just because trail users have to climb up the bank on one side and cross the highway and down the bank on the other side."
Lee adds, that tends to fly in the face of everything they're doing to promote accessibility on the trail. He says they don't what will cost at this point but they're hoping for some help from the county.
He also notes another project a little further into the future is crossing the Maitland River.
"There's a series of four small bridges across the abutments that are already there, similar to the one that we put across Blyth Creek and the other would be down in the harbour, off the end of the Menesetung Bridge, behind the Elevators."
As Lee points out, people using the trail now have to cross the road near the salt mine and then cross the rail road tracks and then get back up the other side and there are still abutments there, but the bridge was taken out years ago.
Lee adds, they're very pleased with the work they've done this summer. He says the entire trail from Guelph to Goderich is now covered with a stone dust surface and a person could ride it with a street bike and he says the better condition the trail is in, the more people will use it and that will make fund-raising easier.
