At their December meeting, the Middlesex Greenways Coalition discussed the latest in a series of initiatives slated to improve the conditions of and access to the Greenway over the course of the next several years.
Encroachment on the trail is a long-standing concern for the traffic and development plans in Edison and Metuchen, among other towns. They have also been responsible for investigating other possible projects, such as building a trail from Glendale down to the shore and putting reflective markers along the trail to help trekkers and emergency personnel find their way down to what is the "only [public] access to the Raritan River, the longest river in New Jersey," according to Walter Stochel, 2008 Jefferson Award recipient.
The East Coast Greenway Association, whose New Jersery arm is fronted by Mike and Ann Kruimer, has been using $25,000 of federal grant monies to put up informational kiosks along the route. Plans are already underway for many clean-up campaigns along the Greenway--recently, after serious tree cutting along the Greenway, PSE&G said that they would not clean up the branches and other debris littering the route and the coalition will be doing that themselves. Organizations and institutions from the Boy Scouts to the AT&T Pioneers to Rutgers will participate in trail clean-ups and lobbying efforts to improve the conditions of the existing trails and create new ones. With upcoming development in Metuchen happening close to the Dismal Swamp area, there will be a lot of attention paid to the Greenway this coming spring.
I have serious doubts that the "upcoming development" in Metuchen will happen.