Rock Hill, Indian Land and Great Falls trail connections are mapped. Here’s the latest
More than $750,000 in grant money to expand the Carolina Thread Trail includes several projects that impact York, Lancaster and Chester counties.
The bi-state, 15-county trail organization announced new funding Thursday. It’s part of almost $8 million in grants to communities and nonprofits the past dozen years to build, design, acquire land or plan for public trails. The trail system has 350 miles, plus 170 miles of blueways along area waters.
A $30,000 grant will allow for design work in Rock Hill. An extension of the Jack White Trail along Dave Lyle Boulevard will help connect the Manchester Creek trail system along the Catawba River to downtown Rock Hill. The Jack White Trail is more than a mile and runs by Confederate Park, among other sites.
Another $30,000 grant will pay for design work in Chester County. Great Falls will get the money to design the 3.5-mile Great Falls Rail Trail along the Catawba River. It will provide pedestrian and bicycle access to recreation options at the planned Dearborn Island State Park.
Planned revitalization of Great Falls to coincide with the restoration of the actual waterfalls that give the area its name include hiking, fishing, rafting, kayaking and canoeing along the Catawba.
State park, kayaking, fishing, rafting and more coming to Great Falls, SC. What to know
A Waxhaw, N.C. project will expand the Twelve Mile Creek Greenway shared with Indian Land. The greenway crosses both North Carolina and South Carolina.
The $50,000 construction grant will upgrade a formerly private trail that will become public. It also will expand the greenway.
Several more North Carolina projects are close to the tri-county area, but don’t touch it directly. Some provide recreation options at a short drive. A Belmont grant will connect Loftin Park to the Catawba. A Catawba Lands Conservancy grant will put a kayak launch on the northern South Fork Catawba in Gaston County. Also in Gaston County, an $86,000 grant will connect Cramerton and Belmont.
The new funding comes a month after Thread Trail officials announced a five-year fundraising campaign for almost 200 more miles of trail, in what is planned to be 1,600 miles at full buildout. Coming trails, officials said then, will have an outsized impact in that many will connect existing trails to broaden the area trail network.
