Funding has been secured for the first phase of a project that eventually will connect the mainland to Assateague Island with a paved pathway for bicycles and pedestrians.
Worcester County officials on Nov. 18 approved an agreement to secure $1.5 million in grant funding for the Route 611 Shared Use Path project, a 10-foot-wide biking-hiking trail. The first phase will link the intersection of Route 50 and Route 611 with the Mystic Harbour community, a distance of 1.3 miles.
When eventually connected to an existing shared use trail at Assateague Island, the end result would be an off-the-highway path about 7 miles long – but that’s an outcome years in the making with no foreseeable completion date, according to Dallas Baker, Worcester County’s public works director.
“Whether you want to visit Frontier Town or Sinepuxent Brewing, there’s multiple businesses and public places to stop. It made sense to provide an off-road path to get people down there,” Baker said. “I thought, ‘let’s see if I can’t do something similar here for Worcester.’”
Baker previously worked on the State Highway Administration team that helped create a shared-use path along Route 50 – the same one he’s now trying to link with Assateague.