Rail-trail project gets boost from metals reseller

A number of Massachusetts cities and towns are currently working with a Nevada-based nonprofit that removes old railroad tracks for free and builds bike paths at little or no cost to communities.

Typically, proponents of rail-trail conversions must seek grants, contend with complicated federal guidelines, and retain design consultants. Design costs alone can run roughly $150,000 per mile, according to one estimate.

The Iron Horse Preservation Society, however, generates revenue by selling the iron and other metals recovered from the railroad tracks, along with wooden ties that can be re-used or sold to biomass energy plants. The assistance of the nonprofit puts Danvers and other Essex County communities in a position to develop a bike trail with little expense.

Earlier this year, Danvers signed a contract in which Iron Horse agreed to remove tracks and create a surface along a route suitable for bike-riding at no cost to the town. The work in Danvers should be completed late this fall or early next spring, according to Ingrid Barry, president of the advocacy group Danvers Bi-peds.

Iron Horse is also working with Topsfield and Wenham on adjoining sections of the path.

“If it hadn’t been for Iron Horse, we would have eventually gotten a bike path,” Barry said, “but it would have been a much slower process.”

The long-range goal is to create a path that runs all the way to the New Hampshire border, and perhaps connects to Boston as well. The project, first envisioned in the 1990s, received preliminary design money through a 2005 federal transportation funding bill.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has signed a 99-year lease that gives area towns access to abandoned railroad beds.