The Railway Trail bridge over Flatts Inlet is to get access ramps installed this spring, MPs heard yesterday.

Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, the public works minister, told the House of Assembly the Department of Parks continued to collaborate with the charity behind the venture, Friends of Bermuda Railway Trail.

Colonel Burch said access ramps to the span bridge over Flatts would be added in April and May.

He added the move would “greatly enhance” use of the trail along the North Shore from Palmetto Park in Devonshire up to Coney Island in St George’s.

Craig Cannonier, the shadow Minister of Works & Engineering and Tourism, asked if the network of bridges would continue east of Coney Island.

But Colonel Burch said: “There are no plans to connect Ferry Reach and Coney Island at this time.”

The Railway Trail has been allocated $320,000 for the next financial year.

Improvements are planned in 2020-21 for Blue Hole Park in 2021/22.

Fences at Spanish Point Park, Astwood Park, Chaplin Bay, Admiralty House, Mullet Bay and Shelly Bay Park will be repaired or replaced.

Bathrooms will be upgraded and benches and picnic tables installed at parks including John Smith’s Bay, West Whale Bay and South Shore Park.

MPs also heard an update on the Hustle Truck work programme for the unemployed, run by the Bermuda Housing Corporation.

The Hustle Truck employs 20 temporary employees per week, with jobs including the pick-up of illegally dumped waste.

Colonel Burch said the programme, based at the former Harmony Club in Paget, had an annual cost of about $1 million a year and provided work for 260 unemployed people a year.