One of the most exciting trail-building projects in recent memory is officially a go, and there’s now a volunteer work day scheduled to kick it off.

I spoke with city trails manager, Mike Burton, yesterday about the recently-delayed North Bank Trail project — the new single track connection linking the trail running behind Maymont to where it heads east at the Texas Beach parking lot.

Burton said work by city staff clearing the corridor will begin any day in preparation for the first volunteer work day on Saturday, Jan. 19 (meet at Texas Beach parking lot at 9 a.m.).

He said the project is going to be sizable. “It’ll take all winter, maybe into the spring, maybe even into the summer.”

The trail segment is about a 1/3 of a mile long and will be relatively straight because the trail corridor is hemmed in by private property above and the old canal below. Also, Burton added, it will be slow going because of the nature of the terrain: “It ranges from quite steep to fairly steep.”

But the more people come out to help, the faster the work will go, and the sooner we’ll be adding a beautiful new section of singletrack to America’s finest urban trail system.

So, put Jan. 19 on your calendars!