Deep River Rail-Trail Moving With New Grant, Recycled Bridge

The town of Franklinville has been awarded a grant of $36,000 from Asheboro's Randolph Hospital Community Health Foundation. Franklinville expects to use $30,000 of the grant to go towards bridging Sandy Creek: some of the funds will go towards a short bridge where the creek is narrow, near Highway 64, and the rest will be put towards a later bridge at the site where the rail line used to cross Sandy Creek. The money will help to connect Franklinville to the neighboring town of Ramseur, which is collaborating with Franklinville on the Deep River Rail-Trail. The remaining $6,000 will help to fund a boat landing on the Deep River. The Randolph Hospital Community Health Foundation funds health and wellness projects that focus on one or more of four areas: nutrition, physical fitness, obesity or substance abuse.

At their recent meeting, Franklinville Mayor Perry Conner noted that he expects to issue a request for proposals (RFP) by the beginning of March for work on Phase 2 of the Deep River Rail-Trail. This work will be funded by a Recreational Trails Program grant. In addition, Franklinville received notice from NCDOT that the town will transfer (on paper) an old bridge in Bladen County to Franklinville in the spring; the bridge itself will probably not arrive until 2013. This bridge, part of NCDOT's Bridge Reuse program, is of a size that could be used to bridge Sandy Creek at the original rail crossing site.