A project to pave the rest of the seven gravel road crossings on the Raccoon River Valley Trail in Greene County is underway.

County Conservation Director Dan Towers says three of the crossings were completed last week by the unincorporated town of Cooper. The County Secondary Roads Department helped with the project, ahead of Saturday’s Market-to-Market Relay on the trail. Now with only four intersections left and plenty of time to do it, Towers is hopeful to get them paved this year.

“Again there’s some other preliminary work, some culverts need attention at a couple of those crossings. So there’s a lot of variables there and that could get drugged out for a while. But plans are right now are to complete them this construction season.”

Jefferson Mayor Craig Berry says with the improvements to the bike trail, that will hopefully get people to come off of the loop and up to the City.

“There’s a perception that of the bike trail from Herndon to Jefferson that it’s a terrible trail, it’s rotten, it’s not any good, the surface isn’t any good and the crossovers aren’t paved. If we can get that stigmatism of the trail being really bad coming up here, we will have more cyclists come up this way.”

Funding for the trail project is provided by a $125,000 grant that the Conservation Department received last month from Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation.