Welcome to the FVTC!
The FVTC was founded in 1992 by Preston Reed of Farmington as a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation to promote public awareness of the conversion of the abandoned Canal Railroad into the central Connecticut portion of the multi-use Farmington Canal Heritage Trail (FCHT) and the Farmington River Trail. Today the organization has fourteen volunteer director/officers, encompasses nine towns and has almost sixteen hundred members. The Adopt-a-Trail Program has almost fifty volunteers providing maintenance for all thirty two miles of paved trail currently completed. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been granted since our inception for construction and enhancements. Other functions are regional advocacy, and events like clean-up days and Trails in Motion, held for the last fourteen years out of Simsbury, CT in June, on National Trails Day. The FVTC produces thousands of folding maps (with the new one showing New Haven to MA) and has created a comprehensive guide of the trail system. We are proud to work with all of the regional stakeholders toward the final completion of the trail system creating one of the premier contiguous multi-use trails in America, and we welcome your support as a member or volunteer.
THIRD ANNUAL FVTC TRAIL CLEAN-UP A RESOUNDING SUCCESS!
On Sunday, April 15th, over 175 volunteers worked to beautify over 38 miles of trails that are part of The Farmington Canal Heritage Trail and the Farmington River Trail. Volunteers collected over 12 cubic yards of trash and deposited it in large dumpsters provided by Paine's at four staging areas throughout North Central Connecticut. It is notable that the number of volunteers more than doubled from last year, showing that North Central Connecticut residents truly care about our beautiful trails that are so heavily used by bikers, walkers, skaters and runners.
We appreciate the organizational efforts of our staging area managers and project manager, including Dwight Weed, Lee Sinkwich, Matt Graeber, Larry Linonis, Norm Hausmann, Jean Ledger, Jerry Ledger and Rich Rowlenson. Again this year, there were numerous reports of trail users stopping volunteers to express their gratitude for the clean-up efforts. In addition, a number of people approached our staging area managers to make donations to FVTC in support of our efforts to maintain and improve the trails for everybody to use.
We received lots of input from our volunteers, and will make some additions and improvements in the clean-up next year to make it even more effective.
Click here to see us on Simsbury Patch.
SAFETY NEWS IN EAST GRANBY - UPDATE
Connecticut Light and Power will be installing the gates on the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail off Turkey Hills Road [RT 20] in East Granby on Friday, April 27 or early next week. The gates will be left open at this time.
Within a couple weeks, the gates will be closed when the steel plate is installed on the trail and construction starts.
The bike and pedestrian offset gates similar to those at Mather’s Crossing will be installed. No bollards will be installed. Two gates on either side of the construction access road (4 gates total) will be installed. Gates will be 6’ long each, separated 5 feet from each other. The gates will be installed before transmission line construction and will remain open until construction starts. Following, the gates will be closed.
Orange “Caution Construction Zone” signs, 12”x18” will be installed on both sides of each gate. Also, a sign at the Farmington Canal trail adjacent to Hartford Avenue will be placed on the existing gate.
“STOP AHEAD” in bold white paint will be painted on the pavement approximately 50 feet ahead of the gates on both sides.
A steel plate will be installed to protect the pavement. Pavement patching will be applied to provide a small ramp on either side of the steel plate. An anti-skid coating will be applied and maintained on the steel plate.
FENCING REPAIRS IN AVON
The Farmington Valley Trails Council partnered recently with the town of Avon to facilitate the repair and replacement of the split rail fences along the Greenway. From its maintenance fund, the Council contributed $1300, and Avon matched that amount to complete the cost of fencing.
FARMINGTON RIVER TRAIL CONSTRUCTION
Farmington has completed their final phase of the Farmington River Trail from Route 4 to the Burlington line. The cost was $707,000 and includes black metal fencing and rest areas.
Collinsville/Canton is complete up to RT 44 at Lovely Street next to Best Cleaners. The town is exploring funding options for the design of the trail north of RT 44 to Simsbury.
