LITTLE VALLEY — The proposed project to build a 52-mile multi-use trail through Cattaraugus County is expected to have preliminary work underway in the new year.

The county received a $7 million RAISE grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2023. The funds will go toward helping complete the planning, environmental, design and alignment of the Southern Tier Trail, an 80-mile corridor proposed in 2021 that would run from the Shoreline Trail in Buffalo to connect to the Genesee Valley Greenway in Allegany County.

“It’s 100 percent federally funded,” said Crystal Abers, Director of the Department of Economic Development, Planning & Tourism (EDPT). “It’s a very exciting, big project for us.”

A 2021 GoBike study for the EDPT proposed a multipurpose trail connecting Buffalo with Hinsdale. The Erie-Cattaraugus Rail Trail from Orchard Park to the town of Ashford will carry the trail over the Zoar Valley Gorge via an existing railroad bridge. From there, it will wind south to Salamanca before heading east toward Hinsdale, running through Allegany and Olean.

The county Legislature was expected to vote on authorizing the awarding of contracts at its meeting on Tuesday. The Finance and Development & Agriculture committees approved the resolutions on Nov. 20.

The EDPT awarded the design and alignment contract of the project to Colliers Engineering & Design of Buffalo for $6,023,900. Colliers is tasked with providing the professional engineering required for the design and alignment of the trail, including the plan review and analysis/design development phase as well as construction documents,

The EDPT also awarded the public process portion of the project to GObike Buffalo for $429,772. GObike will manage the public process required to solicit input from each involved community for the public process portion of the project, including the plan review and analysis/design of a public process plan; establishing advisory groups; identifying the corridor and negotiating trail alignment; and establishing and operation and maintenance plan.

“After the first of the year, once the contracts get into place, then there will be public meetings, there will be boots on the ground, looking at the design and alignment and how we can make it all work,” Abers said. The project is expected to be wrapped up by May 2027.

Meanwhile, Abers said the other trail systems in the county continue to see a lot of utilization.

“We have a diverse trial system already and it’s very well used,” she said. “It’s a positive.”

Also part of the connection plan is the existing Allegheny River Valley Trail in Olean and Allegany. A 200-foot section was added to the trail in 2022 to connect North 12th Street to the trail, and city officials are planning another extension along Wayne Street and the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad to North Union Street.

In June 2023, the city held a ribbon cutting for the 200-foot Allegheny River Valley Trail Connector. Engineering has also progressed on another 0.75-mile extension, which will complete the loop through the city center.

The city received almost $500,000 for the work in June 2022, and officials reported in June 2023 that engineering work should be done this year for construction in 2024.

Among the findings conducted in a feasibility study, there are 23 projects along the route to extend or enhance existing trails along the 80.1-mile route from Lackawanna to Hinsdale, the majority of which will run through Cattaraugus County. A total of 24 trailheads and access points are identified, and officials hope to have 94% of the route off of roads. Equestrian and snowmobile access will be maintained in the southern portion of the trail.

Additionally, GObike Buffalo has been working toward bringing other trail projects to fruition across the county. In 2022, a GObike spokesperson said they were working on projects with the Seneca Nation on both Cattaraugus and Allegany Territories, with the town of Great Valley on a trail to connect Ellicottville and Salamanca as well as with the town of Allegany to connect the Allegany-Limestone Middle/High School campus with the village.