Saturday morning, a bunch of Ironton Rail-Trail volunteers were in a celebratory mood.

It wasn't just the warm, sunny weather or the big box of doughnuts – though both of those were definite plusses – but rather the chance to actually begin work on a project 12 years in the making.

The group of men and one woman were clearing brush from a section of the trail which, when finished, will run from the trailhead at Portland and Quarry streets in North Whitehall west past Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays to the North Whitehall Township building on Levans Road.

"Maybe with a little bit of luck, [a contractor] can start by the end of the year," said Ray Deutsch, a North Whitehall representative of the Ironton Rail-Trail Oversight Commission.

The commission and Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays have been negotiating for the past 12 years for a "land swap" that would allow the trail to continue, Deutsch said.

The path of the old railroad goes right through several of Sporting Clays' shooting stations and the company didn't want to give that up, said Deutsch. Finally, the two groups agreed the trail could veer out around the shooting stations and reconnect with the original rail bed farther west.

"I'm pumped," said Coplay Mayor Joseph Bundra, who was among the volunteers in the work party. "I'm just glad to see this happen."

In addition to Bundra and Deutsch, volunteers included IRT Oversight Commissioner Bruce Stettler of North Whitehall, retired North Whitehall Supervisor Ron Stahley, current North Whitehall Supervisor Mark Hills, Hokendauqua resident David McClintock, IRT Commissioner Kim Scherer of Whitehall, IRT Commission President Ulysses Conner Jr., IRT Commission Vice President David Royer of Coplay and Allen Township resident John Trostle. North Whitehall Public Works employee Tim Trunk also joined the group, running the township wood chipper as the volunteers fed in branches and pieces of brush removed from what will become the actual trail path.

A couple of the men used chainsaws to cut down trees encroaching into the future trail bed. A rope tied to a tree at one end and to a pickup truck at the other helped make sure the trees landed where they were supposed to as they fell.

Usually anyway.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Everybody back!" shouted Bundra when one of the trees being cut down seemed to have its own idea of when and where to fall.

"We're working on this section," said Deutsch, "[on the] final leg of the final design."

The new section of trail will add about a mile to the existing loop, making the entire length of the trail 9.2 miles, he said.

The sounds of shots being fired at Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays could be heard, even over the roar of the work crew's chainsaws and wood chipper. Deutsch said most local people know to expect the sounds but signs will be put up to alert those who come to enjoy the trail from out of town.

A railroad bridge near the work site is has received new decking and railing. The other side of the bridge has been left alone because the IRT does not own it or have a right-of-way to it, Deutsch said.

The work was the Eagle Scout project of Greg Williams of Troop 8.

"He put this bridge in last year and as you can see, it looks really good," Deutsch said. "When an Eagle Scout comes looking for a project, wherever we can find room for one, we put it."

A total of 55 Scouts have gone Eagle projects somewhere along the IRT, which traverses Coplay Borough and Whitehall Township as well as North Whitehall. The trail gets used by many local people and by those coming from the Poconos and Philadelphia, said IRT Commission Secretary Ray Bieak of Whitehall.

Deutsch said the IRT Oversight Commission received a $494,100 grant from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. It is an 80-20 grant, which means the IRT must come up with 20 percent to complete this leg of the trail. The section will have a gravel surface, signs and markers like those found elsewhere on the trail.

"Eventually we want to pave it, but we don't have enough money in the grant to pay for it," Deutsch said. "In the long run, the paved sections are going to [require] less maintenance."

Another DCNR grant – this one a 50-50 grant in the amount of $123,800 – will pay for paving from Limestone Drive to the Portland Street trailhead in 2014, after the Coplay-Whitehall Sewer Authority completes the upgrade of sewer lines installed in the 1960s. The contractor is now working in the area of MacArthur Road and Chestnut streets, with plans to move west toward the North Whitehall Township line as the project continues.

The grant application was submitted as a Keystone Grant after North Whitehall and Whitehall committed to 50 percent of in-kind services and funding. The total cost of paving project is $247,000. North Whitehall Township will fund $41,000 and Whitehall Township will kick in $83,000, said Bieak.