AUGUSTA, Ga. () – This section of the Augusta Canal trail was shut down following Helene.

It’s been so long that new canal visitors have never walked on it.

“My friend wanted to bring me there a few weeks ago. It was closed off and she said she likes it better with the shade there’s really an apparently beautiful area at the end, so we haven’t been able to go on it,” said Lauren Rauert, who moved to Augusta last year.

Helene closed three miles of canal trail and will keep it closed. Commissioners are amending the debris removal contract so the trees that fell into the canal can be removed, that means first draining the canal.

“We have to prepare to dewater the canal get the contractor mobilized. We got to bid the contact still along with the repair diagram and then they got to go do all that work,” said Utilities Department Director Wes Byne.

The canal trail has grown in popularity, and commissioners are growing frustrated that a major stretch is still off limits.

“We can’t keep it closed. Here it is, summertime, and people want to get out and go and do we need to put that in high gear,” said Commissioner Catherine Smith Rice.

But removing the trees from the drained canal will be a lengthy process.

“At that point, you will actually have guys with their muck boots on hooking trees and we got, and we got a couple of people with specialty equipment and pull them up on the shore and let them be cut into parts,” said Byne.

“Sounds expensive.”

“Yes, and very time consuming,” said Byne.   

The budget is $10 million, and the timeline to finish and get the canal path open again looks to be at least three more months.