1

GORDON DANIELS

Carol and Gary Gianchetti of Meadowbrook Drive in Easthampton walk on the section of the Manhan Rail Trail off East Street that washed out - and is now repaired.

EASTHAMPTON - More than a year after heavy rains opened an enormous sinkhole on the northern portion of the Manhan Rail Trail, cyclists and joggers are back in business.

The Friends of the Manhan Rail Trail Committee will hold a brief ceremony Sunday at 1 p.m. as a way to spread the word to the public.

A nearly one-mile stretch of trail from the Route 5 entrance to the sinkhole was closed until last month because officials considered it unsafe. But now the committee wants people to know that they can once again hit the trail.

"It's fantastic," said friends member Stephen Donnelly. "The trail looks as good as new."

Fellow member William Burgart said that the trail is not only an important recreational resource, but that it is also used by people commuting to Northampton.

"With all that road repair at end of East Street, it's definitely a plus for me to be able to use it," Burgart said. A crew from Ludlow-based Gomes Construction finished repair and paving work last month on the approximately 30-foot long section of trail off of Fort Hill Road. The work to shore up the bank of the trail and fill the hole began in September and was finished a month later.

The hole originally opened up in September last year and then grew considerably larger during a rainstorm in early December.

Public works officials said a drainage culvert beneath the trail collapsed, saturating the soil around it with water, eventually causing a small landslide toward the nearby Oxbow section of the Connecticut River.

The repairs were not cheap. The City Council approved a 10-year bond in April to pay for the project, which amounted to $218,000, according to Superintendent of Public Works Joseph I. Pipczynski.

The city was eligible for the low-interest loan because the second washout in December damaged a treated wastewater pipe beneath the trail, forcing the Ferry Street treatment plant to discharge the water into the Manhan River instead of the Connecticut River.

The pipe was repaired in December after an emergency order from the Conservation Commission. The friends group raised money to pay for the fencing and pavement, which were not covered under the grant.

Matt Pilon can be reached at mpilon@gazettenet.com.