Award-winning FF Trail Boardwalk not damaged by Helene

"The boardwalk’s proximity to the lake did mean that it collected a lot of debris, but was cleared by volunteers," said Sarah Chabaane, trail specialist for Burke County. "As of now all sections of the Fonta Flora State Trail have been opened, except for the section from Wolf Pit to Linville River (which is the portion going into Lake James State Park) along NC 126 near the Linville River that had severe erosion and is currently blocked by debris."

Since it opened in 2021, the Fonta Flora Trail Boardwalk provides a safe trail connection for bicyclists and pedestrians to access Lake James. The project included the construction of 554 linear feet of new boardwalk, over 2,800 linear feet of new natural surface trail, and a new high visibility trail crossing at NC 126.

To preserve the integrity of the road above and minimize disturbances to the slope, the boardwalk was constructed with minimal ground contact and hand-augered post-holes, following the hillside’s contour rather than being flat. Since the construction of the Fonta Flora Trail Boardwalk, several new businesses have relocated to locations near the lake increasing recreation related services to trail users and promoting the economy of Burke County.

The Mobi awards are given annually to recognize projects that increase the visibility of multimodal transportation and recognize the positive community impacts these projects have on North Carolina’s economy and quality of life. Judges awarded projects in four population-based categories: Rural (under 10,000), Small Urban (10,000-50,000), (50,000-100,000), and Large Urban (over 100,000).

All projects were also entered into the Innovation and Most Voted categories.

For the Innovation category, the project that won is the one that our panel of judges determined took the most innovative or creative approach to planning, programming, management, leadership or implementation of the project. For the Most Voted Project, the project’s galleries were opened to an online public vote, with the winners being the top three highest vote-getters.

Burke County's second-place finish was in the Urban category plus it garnered a third-place finish for Innovation. 

— AKC