Midtown Linear Park Project

Project Overview

The Ulster County Midtown Linear Park is a federally funded transportation project to design and construct a shared-use trail along the County’s former Ulster & Delaware (“U&D”) Corridor from Cornell Street to Westbrook Lane in the City of Kingston. The Midtown Linear Park is planned to be a 12-feet wide asphalt-paved surface that is ADA compliant and open for non-motorized uses including walking, biking, jogging, walking dogs, and inline skating. The trail will provide a critically needed non-motorized transportation link between Midtown Kingston and the Kingston Plaza (including the City’s only major supermarket and a bus transit hub for the County.) It will also provide much needed recreational opportunities for neighborhoods that currently lack close access to open space and parkland and convert a formerly blighted and nuisance corridor into a community amenity and asset.

Project Status

Ulster County is the Project Sponsor and has been working on the design of the project since mid-2018 when it retained Hudson Valley Engineering Associates (“HVEA Engineers”) to engineer the project. The County received Final Design Approval from the New York State Department of Transportation in March 2020 and is currently completing right-of-way work required to clear title along with parts of the former railroad right-of-way. The County anticipates bidding this project in late 2020 and beginning construction in early spring 2021 with completion in late fall 2021. The Ulster County Legislature authorized removal of the remaining track in the project area in July 2020 so that the Catskill Mountain Railroad could remove from this segment and reuse on other County railroad property needed railroad materials prior to bidding and construction of the project.

Project History: 

In December 2015, the Ulster County Legislature unanimously adopted an updated policy for trail and rail uses along the County-owned Ulster & Delaware (“U&D”) Corridor, which runs more than 38 miles from the City of Kingston to the hamlet of Highmount in the Town of Shandaken. The updated policy delineated the U&D corridor from Cornell Street to Westbrook Lane for redevelopment as a pedestrian and bicycle trail. 

In 2016, Ulster County was awarded $1.5 million in competitive grant funding from the New York State Department of Transportation for engineering design and construction of the Midtown Linear Park project (PIN 8761.82). This program is funded by the Federal Highway Administration and requires a 20% local funding match from the County. In 2018, the County was awarded a $1 million grant from Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley which will cover the County’s local share as well as several project additions, such as new lighting, cleanup of contaminated soils in the former railyard at Cornell Street, and installation of new staircases to the trail at Elmendorf Street and Albany Avenue.

In late 2018, the County Legislature provided its approval for the removal of rails, ties, and other track material between Downs Street and the I-587 underpass to improve the safety of this segment while the final project was being designed and constructed. Following the removal, the Ulster County Department of Public Works prepared a temporary trail surface to allow for public use of the corridor while final designs and construction are completed for the permanent trail.

Project Documents