State grant helps pay for $130,000-plus rehab of Roaring Run Trail

An $86,100 state grant will help pay for a $130,000-plus rehabilitation of a 2.5-mile section of the Roaring Run trail in Kiski Township.

The trail is a five-mile recreational trail along the Kiski River from the end of Canal Road to the village of Edmond in Kiski Township. The Roaring Run Watershed Association, a nonprofit, owns and maintains the trail with volunteers.

Portions of the trail surface, from about the midway point to Edmond, have washed away because of drainage issues over the years, though the trail remains passable.

Volunteers have been patching sections, but the compacted limestone base needs to be repaired and a new crushed limestone surface added, said Ken Kaminski, president of the Roaring Run Watershed Association.

“We need the trail to continue for residents for years to come,” he said. “Just like a car, if you don’t keep up with it, it’s not going to last.”

Application for a grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has been in the works for the last two years to help pay for the rehab project, Kaminski said.

The DCNR grant requires matching support from the watershed association. Labor from its volunteers on the project will count toward the match. But Kaminski estimates his organization will have to kick in more than $50,000.

The DCNR grant to the Roaring Run Trail was part of more than $70 million awarded recently to support more than 300 recreation and conservation projects across the state.

The Roaring Run trail rehab project will start this year or next year, Kaminski said. A local engineer who worked on the trail rehab project previously, Shawn Kuhn, died last year; he was the head of Allegheny Township’s public works.

Another engineer is needed to look at the project again before it begins, Kaminski said.