BANGOR — The City of Bangor, together with the Bangor Land Trust, will commemorate the completion of Trail 5, the new Stillwater-Sylvan Connector multi-use trail, with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 26. The ceremony will be held at the end of Sylvan Road in Bangor, adjacent to Rangeley Hall.
The project was identified by Bangor Trails, a cooperative effort between the Bangor Land Trust, Bangor Beautiful and the City of Bangor. Its directive was to draft a plan that could provide a priority list of sidewalk extensions and improvements, locate opportunities for off-road trail systems, and find a means for pedestrian interconnections between various parks and open spaces.
After Bangor Beautiful dissolved, Bangor Trails continued with the Bangor Land Trust and City of Bangor, which identified and ranked 18 individual segments through a process conducted by the trails committee. Trail 5 was a part of the first connection identified in 2010, which connected Cascade Park, Saxl Park (located on the campus of Dorothea Dix), and Eastern Maine Community College (EMCC). This project completes this important trail connection, and provides a safe and accessible trail from the areas around EMCC and Sylvan Road to Stillwater Avenue.
“We are very excited to have this trail finally open for everyone to use,” said Lucy Quimby, president of the Bangor Land Trust.
The preliminary design phase of the project was funded by the Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) and administered by the Bangor Area Comprehensive Transportation System (BACTS). Woodard & Curran completed the preliminary design for the project. Generous donations from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation and the Elmina B. Sewell Foundation were given to the Bangor Land Trust to assist with moving the final design and permitting of the final project.
In 2017, the City of Bangor was awarded state and federal funding for the remaining design and construction of the trail project through the Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Funding from MaineDOT. The final design of the project was completed by Ted Trembley from the City of Bangor Engineering department. Vaughn D. Thibodeau II, Inc. was the contractor selected to complete the construction.