Lawrence Hopewell Trail co-presidents are joined by township, Lawrenceville School and Bristol Myers Squibb representatives at the ribbon cutting ceremony Oct. 1, 2013. Pictured are Lawrenceville School buildings and grounds manager Tim Moore, Hopewell Township Deputy Mayor Allen Cannon, Lawrence Township Councilmen David Maffei and Michael Powers, LHT co-president Eleanor Horne, Lawrence Township Councilman Stephen Brame, BMS director of corporate communications and community affairs Fred Egenolf, Hopewell Township Committeeman Harvey Lester, Lawrenceville School Head Master Elizabeth Duffy, LHT co-president Becky Taylor, Senator Shirley Turner, Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes and Freeholder Pat Colavita. (Photo by Cie Stroud).
A mile-long segment of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail opened Oct. 1.
The segment includes a 3,100 foot stretch on Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Princeton Pike campus and 1,900 feet through the Lawrenceville School, with Lewisville Road connecting the two new segments.
The new eight-foot wide asphalt trail runs from Princeton Pike on the undeveloped BMS property, past the Brearley Oak and around the northern tip of the property. It crosses Lewisville Road and connects directly with the Lawrenceville School at its baseball field parking lot before becoming stone dust and winding its way through campus.
LHT co-president Eleanor Horne said 16 miles of the 22-mile trail are completed and being used by cyclists and the walking public.
“This new stretch linking to Princeton Pike offices on one side and the village of Lawrence on the other is a major addition to our trail,” Horne said in a statement.
The William Penn Foundation funded the construction with a $248,000 grant. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission that served as the liaison to the project.
William Penn Foundation senior program officer Andrew Johnson said LHT is a pieced of the Circut, the regional trail network that is set to include 750 miles of connected trails in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
“A primary interest of the foundation is using the trail network to provide access to waterways, such as the D&R Canal and the Delaware River, and to natural areas, from the Pinelands to the Schuylkill Highlands, to build support for careful stewardship of these resources,” Johnson said in a statement.
Because construction bids for the primary segment came in below estimates, the LHT, with help from Lawrence Township engineer Jim Parvesse, was able to extend the construction project in partnership with the Lawrenceville School. The segment around the school’s athletic fields fits in with the terraced fields. By using recycled gravel and other construction materials, the school’s supervisor of buildings and grounds, Tim Moore, was able to reach all the way to the interior campus road and still be under budget.
More information is online at lhtrail.org.
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