After years of waiting and plenty of red tape from government agencies, the B&O; Trail Association (BOTA) finally got a piece of long-awaited property.

The group, which was formed in 1992 by Diana Virgil, has been working to acquire a stretch of railroad corridor from CSX Transportation. They’ve been negotiating with CSXT — successor to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad — for several years over part of an abandoned railroad corridor that CSXT owns.

However, a class action lawsuit that involved CSXT and 600 miles of abandoned railroad corridor meant that the company could not sell anything between 1994 and 2003. Finally, in 2003, a judgment came down that listed what CSXT’s title situation was for each parcel along the railroad.

After working and negotiating for part of the railroad, the BOTA in early December received the deed to the old Baltimore and Ohio Railroad corridor through Hendricks County, about 16 miles of railroad corridor.

CSXT transferred the deed to the Hendricks County Commissioners Dec. 4, and the commissioners in turn transferred the deed to the BOTA.

“This is a big monument for us,” Virgil said.

The group had to enlist the help of the county commissioners as the Indiana Department of Transportation does not deal with non-profit groups. All work on the trail has to go through and be approved by INDOT.

Virgil said that even though CSXT abandoned the service along the railroad, they did not abandon the right to the land. That fact was what the class action lawsuit revolved around.

“The attorneys on both sides went back to the original deeds to that railroad,” she said. “Ours is from 1879. They determined what they thought the meaning of that wording was for the original parcel. What we found out in Hendricks County was that CSX owned 16 of the 19 and a half miles in this county of the abandoned railroad that we’re working on.”

So far the group has paid more than $700,000 in pre-purchase expenses and land purchases.

They have paid about $400,000 in the last six moths for preliminary engineering and design work to develop the trail.

“We learned what that all means, including topographical surveys, soil samples, two bridges for this three miles we’re going to construct, lots of stuff,” Virgil said. “All the plans had to be submitted and approved by INDOT.”

Virgil said CSXT also demanded that the group take and test soil samples to find out if there were any contaminants around the area.

“Unfortunately, we did find some,” she said. “CSX agreed to pay half of that, and we had to pay half, about $30,000. We found coal ash and a lot of arsenic. Arsenic is natural in Indiana soil, but there was much more than is natural. We had to deal with IDEM (Indiana Department of Environmental Management) and are in the process of doing that.”

The trail will begin at Raceway Road between County Road 200 North and C.R. 300 North, where construction has already begun on a 1,000-foot stretch.

“The 1,000 feet we own is almost finished, except we will not do the final asphalt coat until the construction happens west of that,” she said. “Those are the three miles we hope to construct next year. We’ll start at the western end of the 1,000 feet and will go to (C.R.) 1000 East, there will be a little creek with a bridge there, and then it will start again at (C.R.) 300 North and go northwest to State Road 267.”

She said the next part of the trail will stretch from C.R. 1000 East to the tunnel under Ronald Reagan Parkway.

The trail will be 12-feet wide on the asphalt for walking and biking, and two feet on either side for runners on compacted stone, for a total width of 16 feet. They are also working on including an equestrian trail, though Virgil said they encountered wetlands that will have to be established elsewhere before the construction can proceed on those trails.

“Hendricks County is very deficient in trails and parks, according to our population,” she said. “The DNR (Department of Natural Resources) does what they call a scope determining how much public land there should be for walking, nature, and parks. This trail will help the county gain the land we need for natural areas.”

Currently the group is working on raising $50,000 to pay for design work for the trail. More information on the fundraising campaign is available on the group’s website, www.BOtrail.org.

Virgil said they’d also like to speak with anyone interested in selling or donating their adjacent land parcels to the BOTA.

“There are still parcels that we do not own that, if they would like to donate, we are tax deductible, we are a 501 (c)3 organization,” she said. “If they don’t want to donate and want to sell it, we still want to hear about that too.”

To contact Virgil, e-mail to dmvirgil@earthlink.net or call 852-3838.

charlee.beasor@flyergroup.com