Bike Path Edges Closer To Extension

Bigger price tag or no, the Wall Township bike path is heading for an extension.

The Township Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved an additional $48,000 to its portion of the price tag to extend the bike path – which runs from Manasquan to Allaire State Park – nearly another mile

The vote was 4-0 in favor of a bond ordinance appropriating $213,000 in bonds to pay for its portion of extending the township’s popular bicycle path. Committeeman Clinton Hoffman was absent.

The bond ordinance represents about $48,000 more than the township had counted on.

Wall had received about $500,000 in state and county grants to extend the path down Hospital Road toward its ultimate goal of extending it all the way to the Howell boundary, where that town plans to extend it to the Manasqan Reservoir.

But there was a $48,000 shortfall in the money collected to cover the cost of lengthening the 7.2-mile path.

The proposed extension is about 8/10 of a mile, and would bring the path system to roughly eight miles.

The extension is a two-phased project that would extend the path where it meets Hospital Road, bringing it into Allaire State Park at a different entrance where it would meet up with Allaire’s trail system. Another phase would extend the path along Hospital Road to the boundary with Howell, officials have said.

The project carries a price tag of just more than $500,000. The township has received a $345,000 state Department of Transportation grant and a $157,000 Monmouth County Green Acres grant to help cover the cost of the path’s extension.