Off to the right, just at the entrance to Hammonasset State Park, there is a construction project underway. It is perhaps minor by some standards, but major to the small crew of volunteers who are hard at work there now and to the hundreds, thousands, and hundreds of thousands the volunteers hope will use it in the future.

The Shoreline Greenway Trail, at its easternmost point, begins at the state park entrance, where it must span 72 feet of tidal marsh. A boardwalk is required, and that project is now well underway. The Shoreline Greenway Trail is being built as a continuous path for bicyclists, walkers, and hikers of all ages to enjoy the outdoors and help create healthy communities along the Connecticut shoreline. The 25-mile trail, once completed, will extend from Lighthouse Point on the New Haven Harbor through East Haven, Branford, and Guilford to Hammonasset State Park in Madison. It is a volunteer effort.

Virginia Raff is one of Madison's active Shoreline Greenway volunteers. Six years ago, she, her husband Ted, their friends Perry and Sue Rianhard, and a small group of volunteers began the first work on the trail.

"It was a jungle and we hacked our way through it with hand tools," she recalled.

Today volunteers have completed a 1,700-foot-long, 10-foot-wide trail section topped with crushed pink granite, good for both walkers and bicyclists.

At present, access to this trail section is at Route 1 across from the Beech Tree Cottages. Shortly, with completion of the boardwalk, access will be at the state park entrance, where the Shoreline Greenway group will build a parking area.

When completed (expected to be in February), the boardwalk will be 10-feet wide and span 72 feet of marsh. The total length will be 220 feet, including ramps, which will make the trail as accessible as possible to wheelchairs and persons with limited mobility. The boardwalk is supported on 38 helical piers, a process designed to do the least damage to the marsh.

"Our goal is the leave the marsh in better shape than how we found it," Raff said.

The piers were installed by Robert J. Barnabei Contracting, LLC, of Madison. The structure on top of the piers is now being built by volunteers. The decking will be a composite grid material that will allow 88 to 90 percent of available light through to the marsh grasses.

The boardwalk itself was designed by volunteer Rianhard, who said, "I took my little pencil sketch to an engineering firm in Guilford and they blessed it."

As construction got underway, it was volunteer David Kelley, a retired builder, who added his expertise to solve a problem or two. With Ted Raff, this trio has been working steadily on this boardwalk. It has been Virginia Raff who has been learning the complexities of the multi-level permitting process, and then mastering them. There have been local, state, and federal approvals, certifications, reviews, permits, revisions, and agreements.

"The Army Corps of Engineers wanted the boardwalk two feet higher than we planned. After the storms we have had, we are glad they did," Raff said.

The request for revisions slowed the project, however.

"The state's wetlands officer really went to bat for us with the Army Corps, and it made a difference," she reported.

The cost of the walkway is approximately $57,000. It has been funded through gifts from the Dorr Foundation in honor of Shirley Punzelt of Madison on her retirement from its Board of Directors; the Long Island Sound License Plate Fund administered through the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection; and a Community Foundation of Greater New Haven Challenge Grant.

Other sources of support for other work along the Hammonasset section of the trail include Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Madison Newcomers Club, Madison Jaycees, Guilford Savings Bank, and hundreds of individuals and personal foundations.

"About 700 people in Madison have supported this trail," Raff said.

The Shoreline Greenway Trail begins its First Saturday Winter Hikes in January. The organization's Madison volunteers welcome hikers on Saturday,

Feb. 2 at 10 a.m. at Hammonasset.

"We will celebrate our first walk on the newly installed boardwalk across the marsh," Raff noted.

You're invited.

To learn more about the Greenway Trail, visit www.shorelinegreenwaytrail.org.