Work begins on local section of state trail
The 1.3-mile portion will stretch northward from the Hutton Brickyards property on North Street in the city.
Work has begun on the 1.3-mile section of the Empire State Trail in the city of Kingston and neighboring town of Ulster, according to Kingston Mayor Steve Noble.
The local section of the recreation trail will stretch from the Hutton Brickyards property on North Street in the city through land owned by Quarry Waters LLC, an affiliate of Scenic Hudson, to John Street in the town of Ulster.
The section will be called the Hudson River Brickyard Trail and will continue across the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge before heading north to Albany and beyond, according to a statement from Noble. The work is being funded by a grant from the state Department of State, as well as the city of Kingston, own of Ulster, Hudson River Valley Greenway and Scenic Hudson.
“The Empire State Trail is an immensely ambitious project that will be hugely beneficial to everyone in our city,” Noble said. “We are so grateful to Governor [Andrew] Cuomo for seeing the potential in Kingston and Ulster to bring the Empire State Trail through our area.”
The 750-mile Empire State Trail, of which the Hudson River Brickyard
Trail will be a part, is to run from New York City to the Canadian border and from Albany to Buffalo. The section in Kingston and Ulster is expected to be completed by December.
The state Department of Transportation also is working on a section of the trail connecting the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail to Route 32 and to Greenkill Avenue in Kingston. The two local sections will connect through a series of roadway bike lanes and the Kingston Point Rail Trail.
The property the Hudson River Brickyard Trail will traverse was earmarked to become a state park as part of Cuomo’s proposed $3 billion Restore Mother Nature bond act. The spending authorization was to be on the state’s Nov. 3 ballot but was shelved due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bond act included a plan by the state to acquire 508 acres along the Hudson River in Kingston and Ulster from Quarry Waters LLC.
Quarry Waters bought the land last fall for an undisclosed price from AVR Acquisition Corp. of Yonkers, which at one time planned to build a housing development on part of the site.
The land has an assessed value of approximately $5 million.