Trail would connect Tybee to Athens

STATESBORO, Ga. (WSAV) – A nonprofit is breaking ground in Union Point on a walking trail that would connect Tybee Island to north Georgia.

“We’re investing in families and small kids, mothers, fathers having something to do with their families,” said Founder Mary Charles Howard.

Howard says she left her hometown in Union Point to go to college where she found a love for cycling. She says when she came back home to start a family, she noticed playgrounds had started disappearing.

“I have this love for wanting to live in a small town but just the frustration of we want to stay here and make our small town better and best in this place, does that mean that we have to settle for not having amenities for our young people? Not having playgrounds, not having trails?” said Howard. “I just wasn’t okay with that.”

Howard says she started working on the project in 2019. She hopes it’ll be around 250 miles long by its completion, with concrete pavement all the way down.

“If you don’t have a paved driveway, there’s just not an easy way to get into the sport,” said Howard. “A paved trail is a place where a kid can learn to ride a bike, can ride a tricycle if they haven’t learned yet. You cannot ride a tricycle on an unpaved surface, it’s impossible.”

In their first steps – to be completed near 2030 – they’re starting with a one-mile stretch in a major city in each county along the trail. Howard hopes they can connect walking trails throughout the area to each other.

She says it costs a little over $1 million per mile to pave the trail with concrete.

Howard adds that funding is something they’re working on, mostly working off of volunteers and donations so far. They’re trying to secure federal and state funding for as much as they can.

It’s a long-term project that they’re aiming to finish in 2050.