By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
FLORENCE The township will soon have a new bike trail, having recently received a $300,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation’s Bikeways program.
The money will go toward establishing a bike path on Old York Road toward the E. Budd Marter Memorial Park, Township Administrator Richard Brook said. The municipal recreation facility features a playground and soccer fields.
”The state has been pushing and pressing for safe passageways to recreational areas,” he said. “It’s all designed to promote safety for people on bicycles.”
He noted the area has no sidewalks, forcing bikes to share the road with motor vehicles.
The state Department of Transportation released a list Jan. 27 of the 19 townships receiving a total of $4.4 million in grants for independent bike path projects.
The Bikeways program awards grants for municipal projects that will create new, independent bike facilities. In addition to reducing congestion, improving air quality, and encouraging exercise, the program aims to develop 1,000 miles of dedicated bikeways in the state.
Both municipalities and counties are eligible for Bikeway funds, which are provided by the state’s Transportation Trust Fund.
The next step for the township is to prepare designs for the Township Council to consider. Mr. Brook said Florence will also have to work with Burlington County, as Old York Road is a county road.
Among other steps, the actual construction will require the paving and painting of the new path.
Mr. Brook estimated the trail might be finished as early as fall of this year, or as late as early 2010. The exact length of the bikeway is to be determined.
This grant is just the latest of several the township has received from the DOT in recent months.
In late December, Florence became the recipient of a $115,000 grant through the DOT’s Safe Streets to Transit program to fund work on the sidewalk on Hornberger Avenue, the site of the Roebling light rail station on NJ Transit’s RiverLINE.
In mid-November, the township received a $150,000 grant from the DOT’s 2009 Municipal Aid Program to reconstruct Fifth Avenue, a road Mr. Brook called “an integral part of Roebling.”
The money will be used to repave three sections of the avenue.

