CAMPOBELLO, S.C. — The organizations seeking to turn the Saluda Grade, once the steepest rail main line in the U.S., into a 31-mile trail, has signed a contract with Norfolk Southern to purchase the right-of-way.
The Greenville Journal reports the Saluda Grade Trade Conservancy announced it signed the contract on Monday, Aug. 5. Terms of the sale are confidential at the request of Norfolk Southern, but the coalition of organizations making up the conservancy has 12 months to exercise due diligence and raise the remaining funding needed for the trail in North and South Carolina.
That due diligence includes surveying the property, conducting title searches and an environmental impact assessment, and developing a regional marketing plan, said Laura Ringo, executive director of PAL: Play, Advocate, Live Well — one of the three organizations that are part of the conservancy. (Others are Upstate Forever and Conserving Carolina. The latter group received a $450,000 federal grant in July toward trail development).
“That means for us, the clock is ticking,” Ringo said. She also told an economic development forum that U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) had secured $6 million in federal funding to help with trail construction.
More information on the trail project is available here.
