Weldon making improvements to Canal Trail

WELDON — When the work is completed within a month, Weldon’s portion of the Roanoke Canal Trail will be a safer place for its users.

For the past three to four weeks, the town’s Public Utilities Department has been working on the trail, removing stumps and roots, removing bridges and filling those areas with soil. They are putting in turf blocks to help patrons have better traction. The blocks will also control erosion and allow grass to grow, said Jeff Elks, the town’s assistant public utilities director.

The stones are funded through the same $800,000 N.C. Department of Transportation grant used to build Phase 2 of the Roanoke Canal Museum, Chris Wicker, Roanoke Rapids Parks and Recreation director, said.

Elks, along with public utilities employees Eddie Smith and Pete Scott and firefighter Lindbergh Harlow, who works part-time with the department, will by the end of the project place 1,300 of the 18-by-24-by-4 stones on the canal trail by hand. Probably half of the project will be done manually, Elks said yesterday.

Literally thousands of roots in the walking paths will be removed, roots whose removal will not affect the health of trees. “It’s going to be safer,” Elks said.

Another part of the Weldon project includes putting canopies at the entrance and exit of the walking tunnel under U.S. Highway 301, which leads to Riverfalls Park. That project is being done by Weldon Fire Chief Rusty Bolt.

“Weldon is doing a great job,” Wicker said yesterday. “Having this partnership we have a great project which the (state) Department of Transportation made its highest priority which recognizes history and natural resources and connects an excellent lake park (in Roanoke Rapids) and an excellent river park (in Weldon). It’s a very unique opportunity.”