By David Harry

Staff Writer

From Eastern Road, hikers and bike riders can enjoy a curving trail with views of the Nonesuch River as it winds through upper reaches of Scarborough Marsh.

Crossing the river is a different matter. Scarborough has asked for $1 million in federal transportation money to help reconstruct an old railroad bridge that would help provide one of the last links along the trail.

Scarborough Town Manager Tom Hall has asked Congresswoman Chellie Pingree to include an “earmark” to pay for the bridge and complete the Scarborough portion of Eastern Trail. He is working with the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System, a regional collaboration of 16 towns that secures state and federal transportation funding.

Stone foundations and concrete abutments still stand where trail and river meet, but boulders now block a roughly 20-foot drop to the river. On the north side of the bridge, brush and trees have rooted in the railroad bed that could become at least part of final links for a 62-mile trail from Kittery to Bug Light in South Portland.

The earmark request faces long odds of acceptance, according to statistics provided by Willy Ritch, communications director for Pingree, a Democrat.

Pingree has received 133 earmark requests since last October to be included in eight appropriation bills. Ritch said the request for bridge and trail money is one of 21 to be considered as part of next year’s federal budget in the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill.

The bill is part of the federal budget that goes into effect Oct. 1.

While the requests are plentiful, available slots for earmarks Pingree can request have decreased almost by half, from seven to four, said Ritch.

Hall said how the trail will extend in South Portland after a new bridge is built has not been decided. 

“I was hesitant to put this forward because there are so many unanswered questions,” he said.

While the trail would continue north on the former railroad roadbed once across the Nonesuch River, private property and pedestrian access concerns along Pleasant Hill Road complicate a potential route.

One choice could set a path along a Central Maine Power right of way. The trail would cross active rail lines owned by Guilford Transportation and used by the Amtrak Downeaster and freight trains.

A second choice would cross private land and use Pleasant Hill Road for part of the trail, a route that concerns Hall because of traffic flow and a narrow bridge over active train tracks.

Also undecided is how the trail will be routed north of Pleasant Hill and what Public Works officials unofficially call Prout’s Pond.

Possible routes are along Pond View Drive or along the other side, which would mean less vehicle traffic but more work to create the trail, Hall said.

Eventually, any completed trail will link to the South Portland Greenbelt walkway at the Wainright Recreation Complex off Highland Avenue and bordering the Scarborough town line, according to preliminary plans.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219