High Falls Gorge President Kathryn Reiss said customer safety trumps all other concerns; therefore, replacing and repairing worn sections of the trail is costly but necessary. Construction started at the beginning of June, and Reiss is hopeful construction will be completed by early October.

Parts of the trail need to be repaired and replaced because of age. Some of the steel holding up the walkways and stairways, for example, is from 1961 and is exposed to constant moisture.

Reiss hired Luck Bros. Inc. to remove and replace parts of the trail. Though she has never worked with this company before, she said they are doing a great job. When repairs had to be made in 2011 after Tropical Storm Irene, Reiss had to hire two different companies.

“I used a painting company that would only paint everything they could reach from the deck,” she said.

High Falls Gorge President Kathryn Reiss talks about repairs and improvements being made to walkways and stairways through the gorge. (Enterprise photo — Delainey Muscato)

Reiss then had to hire a different company to paint underneath the walkways and stairways.

This time she hired a company based in Colorado that specializes in painting high steel structures including rollercoasters, water towers and high rises. BASE Painters will use marine-based paint made for painting sea walls or underwater structures. Reiss said the constant moisture actually helps seal the paint and make it stronger.

An engineer inspects High Falls Gorge every year and lets them know if they need to fix anything.

Reiss said these renovations go above and beyond what the engineer told the park they needed to fix.

“With 60,000 (people) coming through here each year and stepping on the treads, things tend to wear out fast,” she said.

In addition to the steel replacements, Reiss’s staff will replace the wooden deck boards and fencing on and around the trail.

At this point, the construction crew made it through the first bridge and will soon tackle the second one.

The first bridge still needs to be painted. Reiss said the painting company was delayed when they realized they needed a sandblaster to smooth the steel before could begin painting. Once the bridge is painted, it can be reopened to customers while work on the second bridge begins.

Reiss said the timing is unfortunate as the construction is happening during peak season.

“But it will look bright, shiny and new when it is done,” she said.

As a small, privately owned business, Reiss said, High Falls Gorge does not have state funds to do their renovations. They have saved up on their own, and Reiss hopes the investments will last a long time.

High Falls Gorge — a 22-acre, privately owned park — provides access to four waterfalls and has a nature trail, with year-round access.

The park has trails of different difficulties, and the waterfall trails are wheelchair accessible. The one-mile nature trail has steep inclines for those looking for more of a challenge.