All Aboard - on Foot
camp lejeune, railroad, recreation,
Years ago, if you sat and gazed at the tracks that ran along NC Highway 24, you could count the locomotives, cabooses and cattle cars as they rumbled by. Today, you’d have a hard time keeping track of the joggers, dog-walkers and cyclists that follow the former railroad tracks.
The first 5-mile leg of the city of Jacksonville’s Rails-to-Trails program opened in June 2008. It’s a creative re-imagining of unused rail tracks as safe, attractive trails that serve as an important part of the city’s recreation amenities.
In time, the new 5.2-mile trail, which runs from Marine Boulevard to the front gate of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, will be part of a 172-mile network of pedestrian paths that will bring users past a number of notable Jacksonville sights, including Riverwalk Crossing Park and the Beirut Memorial.
Some 54 miles of tracks have been donated to the trail system by Camp Lejeune and will be used for a continuation of the path on the base itself.
Why a trail system?
“It’s been proven time and time again in communities all over the country,” says Tim Chesnutt, director of Jacksonville’s Recreation and Parks Department. “Whether people are walking for leisure, walking their dogs, biking, rollerblading, jogging or whatever, usage of trails is invaluable. People of all ages and backgrounds benefit from them.”
Popular with Jacksonville’s amateur athletes and just plain folks of all fitness levels, the new rail trail contains both open areas and stretches that take users through wooded areas, bringing them a little closer to nature, an important part of the trail’s purpose.
“It adds to the quality of life here,” says Mike Wetzel, recreation supervisor for the city of Jacksonville. “It really has helped get people outdoors and more active. It’s a chance to run or walk in a safer environment than they would have walking alongside a busy road.”
The trail is used heavily on weekends, says Wetzel, but early-morning runners and after-work walkers are increasingly taking advantage of the path.
Besides its obvious recreational benefits, Wetzel sees the path as having real economic plusses. For starters, greenways like this one help boost real estate values.
“People are looking for trails and greenways, things like that, when they’re buying houses,” he says.
The trail also has proven to have health and environmental value. Many people who work on base at Camp Lejeune now opt to leave their cars at home and bicycle to work, not only getting good exercise but lessening their impact on the environment.
“I ride to work every morning and ride home in the evening every day, about six-and-a-half miles each way,” says Thomas Brock, who works as a civil servant at Camp Lejeune. The trail’s opening, he says, was a major impetus in convincing him to sell his car last year. Now he estimates he will save $5,000 annually by not paying for gas, auto insurance and maintenance.
An added benefit? “I’ve lost more than 10 pounds in just over six months without doing anything else,” Brock says.
In December 2008, the American Council of Engineering Companies of North Carolina also recognized the trail for its aesthetic beauty. Raleigh-based engineering/architecture firm HNTB North Carolina was cited for engineering excellence for the design of the trail’s bridge over Lejeune Boulevard.
“We’re pretty proud of that,” Wetzel says. “And, it’s a weathered bridge that will last 50 years before we have to fix anything.”
Story by Laura Hill
