Borden Tunnel Work Starts on the GAP
Crews began rehabilitating the Borden Tunnel on the Great Allegheny Passage on Sept. 1. Expect flaggers, construction vehicles and a dismount through April 2027.
If your fall plans involve riding the Great Allegheny Passage between Meyersdale and Frostburg, put this one in your calendar now rather than finding out at the tunnel mouth.
Allegany County began moving contractors onto the trail on September 1 to rehabilitate the Borden Tunnel, at GAP mile marker 17.9. The Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy posted the alert on August 31, listing the segment as partially obstructed and asking riders to travel slowly and cautiously.
What to expect on the trail
Construction vehicles will be operating on the trail surface, and at times inside the tunnel itself. Flaggers may hold trail users up while equipment moves. The alert asks people to be ready to dismount and walk through.
None of that is unusual for trail work. What makes this one worth planning around is the calendar: the project is scheduled to run through April 30, 2027. That is not a weekend detour. That is a bike season, a fall foliage season, the whole winter, and the front end of next spring.
Why bother fixing a hole in a mountain?
The Borden Tunnel is one of the old railroad bores that make the GAP what it is. Ride the trail and you are riding the Western Maryland and the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie right-of-ways, tunnels and viaducts included. Those structures were built for coal trains a century ago, and stone and steel do not last forever without somebody putting money into them. Rehabilitation work like this is the reason the trail is still rideable at all.
Short-term hassle, long-term trail. It is a trade most of us would take.
Plan around it
Riders heading from Meyersdale toward Frostburg should budget extra time and expect to stop. Groups, shuttle operators and anyone running a supported trip through the Big Savage stretch will want to build the delay into their day. If you are guiding out-of-town guests who booked a smooth 150-mile ride, tell them ahead of time.
Current conditions for the whole trail are posted at gaptrail.org/updates, and the Borden Tunnel alert itself is at gaptrail.org. Check before you roll.
Source: Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy trail alerts, reported August 31, 2026.