Down but not out: Your guide to the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail once it reopens next year

The grand opening party for the 93-mile Lamoille Valley Rail Trail from Swanton to St. Johnsbury was all set for Saturday, July 15. A package of stories about riding the length of the trail by the the Burlington Free Press staff was all set to publish a week or so ahead of the grand opening.

Neither happened.

For the grand opening, Gov. Phil Scott was planning to ride the length of the trail himself, stopping in communities along the way to meet the locals. Sen. Bernie Sanders was going to lead a walk along the trail ending in Morrisville, where he would be joined by Scott, other state and local officials, and community members for the main celebration.

Mother Nature had other ideas. The rain started falling on July 9 and continued through July 17, causing catastrophic flooding that inflicted an estimated $11 million worth of damage to the $31 million trail, cancelling the grand opening and closing the trail, said Michele Boomhower, division director for policy, planning and intermodal development at the Vermont Agency of Transportation. The agency is responsible for the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail.

Sanders called the July flooding "the worst natural disaster to impact the state of Vermont since 1927." The Great Vermont Flood of 1927, Nov. 3-4, stands as the greatest natural disaster ever to hit Vermont, according to the National Weather Service. There were 84 deaths and 1,285 bridges destroyed across the state. This year's flooding claimed two lives and destroyed two bridges. Emergency responders rescued about 200 people from the flooding and evacuated another 100, while 46 roads were closed.

"There's nothing that's going to prevent us (from making) the repairs of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail," Boomhower said. "We had just, obviously, made significant investments in the asset over the past several years, and so just like any other transportation facility we own and maintain, we are going to make those repairs and bring (the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail) back to the level it was prior to the storm."

The ends of the rail trail are open; the middle is closed

It's going to take awhile. The beginning and end of the trail − 30.3 miles from Swanton to Cambridge Junction and 19.5 miles from Walden to St. Johnsbury, respectively − have already been reopened, for a total of 49.8 miles, or more than half the trail.

But the remaining 43.2 miles of the LVRT, between Cambridge and Walden, was absolutely hammered by the flooding, and won't be completely reopened until next year, according to Boomhower.

"Some of the damages were so significant there are sites that are going to take longer to restore," Boomhower said. "We're probably looking at the middle of next summer before we reopen the entire facility."

The damage to the central section of the trail ranges from complete bridge and culvert washouts to severe slope failures blocking the trail or washing it out altogether, according to a news release. A total of 103 sites remain damaged and closed. The Vermont Agency of Transportation has hired contractors for 57 of the sites and is working to get the remaining 46 sites under contract for repairs soon.

Boomhower expects 90% of the estimated $11 million cost of repairs to be covered by the Federal Emergency Management Administration, leaving the state with about $1 million in expenses to get the LVRT fully restored.

The grand opening celebration will be rescheduled, hopefully for about the same time next year as it was going to be this year, Boomhower said. In the meantime, here's our story about what it will be like when you're able to ride the entire trail next year.

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosi@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Riding the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail before the floods.