By PETE KLEIN

For the Express

RAY BROOK — Bicycl-ists and walkers will be able to stay off the roads and on the TOBIE Trail when they want to cross the Moose River in the Town of Webb, thanks to the Adirondack Park Agency Board of Commiss-ioners approving the town’s request for a variance Thursday, July 12.

The town applied for a variance to install a bridge for pedestrians, bicycles and cross-country skiers, but not snowmobiles, over the Middle Branch of the Moose River, a designated recreational river under the New York State Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System Act.

The bridge will be built where the railroad bridge was removed sometime prior to 1973, and will utilize the existing abutments.

The site is near Spruce Drive / Hemlock Lane in an area designated as Hamlet on the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan Map.

The town also needs an APA permit to reconstruct the abutments, because the work involves wetlands.

The bridge will be about 115 feet long and 12 feet wide. The trail leading up to it will be pavement eight feet wide. There will be a four-foot tall wooden railing along both sides of the trail leading up to the bridge.

The vote to approve was 8-2; commissioners Sherman Craig of Wanakena and Bill Valentino of Albany voted against the variance.

They are concerned the bridge might be used by snowmobiles, even though the Town of Webb said in its application that the TOBIE Trail is for non-mechanized use except in emergencies, and it will do whatever is necessary to prevent motorized access.

Both the Village of Old Forge in the Town of Webb and the Town of Inlet promote the TOBIE as a bicycle and pedestrian pathway connecting communities along a 14-mile corridor from Thendara to Inlet.

The pathway — which passes through the towns of Thendara (T), Old Forge (O), Big Moose (B), Inlet (I) and Eagle Bay (E) — has both on- and off-road sections, including an abandoned spur line from the Remsen Lake Placid Rail Corridor running from the Adirondack Scenic Railroad Station in Thendara toward Old Forge.