Carbon County is receiving over $400,000 from the state to help in the completion of the Delaware & Lehigh Nature Trail.

On Thursday, Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard announced that Gov. Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Secretary Leslie S. Richards awarded $66.8 million through the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program to 82 projects in the state.

The grants aim to improve transportation alternatives such as trails and enhance mobility and accessibility for the communities.

“Our citizens are taking advantage of an array of trails and improvements that enhance the state’s quality of life, and these new investments will build on our successes in making Pennsylvania an attractive place to live and work,” Richards said in the release.

Carbon County received $403,986, which will be used to connect the D&L Trail from the northern trailhead at the northern end of the county parking lot in Jim Thorpe to the new pedestrian bridge with a safe delineated travel path along the Lehigh River.

Currently, hikers and bikers using the trail must use the county parking lot as part of the trail, but commissioners have hoped to create a dedicated path outside the lot to make it safer for hikers and bikers, as well as motorists.

“It’s a good day in Carbon County,” Gerhard said.

In neighboring Lehigh County, the state awarded $838,188 for the construction of a trail to close a 1.45-mile gap along the D&L Trail from the Lehigh/Northampton County line to Hanover Township’s Canal Park on the canal towpath.