Orange County closes Heritage Trail section for one-week repaving work

Orange County will close the Heritage Trail between the Village of Chester and the Village of Monroe on Monday for repaving, shutting one of the county’s busiest multi-use paths for about a week.

The county said the work is part of ongoing maintenance on the Heritage Trail, which it describes as its first multi-use asphalt trail. The route runs through a scenic corridor with access from Goshen to Harriman and is used for walking, biking and rollerblading, making the closure a direct inconvenience for commuters, exercise users and families who rely on it.

Officials said the closure begins Monday, May 11, 2026, and is expected to last approximately one week. The county asked trail users to observe posted signs and plan accordingly while the segment is closed. The notice covers the stretch from the Village of Chester to the Village of Monroe, a section that links two of Orange County’s most recognizable trail communities.

The repaving follows a series of earlier projects in the same corridor. Orange County posted a Heritage Trail closure notice on September 17, 2025, for tree trimming tied to upcoming paving work. In 2024, the county also announced closures for bridge deck replacements between Bridge No. 1 over Seely Brook near Lehigh Avenue in Chester and Bridge No. 4 near Craigville Road in Blooming Grove. Together, the projects show the county has been working through a longer repair cycle rather than treating the trail as a one-off fix.

That matters in Orange County, where the Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department manages more than 3,400 acres of parkland and estimates annual visitation at 800,000. A closure on a corridor as visible as Heritage Trail can ripple beyond the immediate Chester-Monroe segment because the path serves both recreation and day-to-day local travel.

When the work is finished, users should get a refreshed asphalt surface on a route that is built for heavy shared use. For walkers, cyclists and rollerbladers, the county’s bet is that a week of disruption now will buy a smoother, more durable trail through one of the county’s best-known park connections.