Tech Extends Huckleberry Trail One Mile

If you're a regular on Blacksburg's Huckleberry Trail, which traverses the Virginia Tech campus, you're in for a delightful surprise when you get your bike out for your next trail trek: there's more of it now.

Here's a press release from Virginia Tech about the one-mile extension:

A portion of farm land previously used by College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has been transformed into the newest section of the Huckleberry Trail. The new one-mile section, called the Hokie Bikeway, connects the existing trail just west of Route 460 near the tunnel to the trails near Plantation Drive. Construction crews are still installing new fencing and blue light safety phones, but the trail is open to the public.

With the addition of the Hokie Bikeway, Virginia Tech now has 3 miles of bike lanes, 10 miles of shared paths, 3 bicycle repair stations, and several covered bicycle racks.

The bikeway  will connect the existing trail to a new northern section that is scheduled to be completed this fall. The new trail will connect to Heritage Park, Gateway Park and eventually to the Jefferson National Forest. Current construction on the southern end of the Huckleberry will extend the trail to the Christiansburg High School.

The cost of the project was $500,000, with a significant part of the funding coming from a transportation enhancement grant through the Virginia Department of Transportation.