Bermuda’s under-17 rugby team joined forces with Parks workers and the Friends of the Bermuda Railway Trail this week to repair a section of the trail near Francis Patton School.

The crew, which also included volunteers from Hamilton Parish Council, used a new technique developed with Hinson Hall Stables and Sousa’s Landscaping to reduce the erosion on the trail.

The work was led by Richard Gaglio of Hinson Hall Stables and Claudette Baisden of the parks department.

It involved positioning geo-webbing on the vulnerable areas of the trail and filling it with a mixture of screenings, dry cement and dirt. The structure was then framed with discarded telephone poles to control the runoff. The preservation measure has been successfully used on other sections of the Railway Trail where the hillsides are steep or rainfall and horse use has created deep ruts.

Mike Murphy, who together with his son, Tucker, has been at the forefront of the scheme to regenerate the trail, praised the volunteers for their efforts.

“The under-17 rugby team has assisted the Friends of Bermuda Railway Trail in conjunction with the Department of Parks on other occasions in improving the trail for the benefit of tourists and locals alike and is to be highly commended for their dedicated service as are the many other volunteers that helped,” Mr Murphy said.

“It is hoped that this geo-cell application and co-operative community effort will become a most useful model to improve several other locations on the trail particularly the west side running from Ord Road to Somerset Bridge.

“Without large numbers of volunteers assisting with the parks department in undertaking these efforts, it would be difficult to cost-effectively service, improve and maintain the 19 miles of the railway trail, which has had a recent rise in popularity, among walkers, bikers and our more active island visitors.”