There will be heightened activity in Omeo from today with the design team responsible for planning the much-anticipated Omeo Mountain Bike Trails (MTB) conducting important cultural heritage and ecological assessments.

Over the past three weeks trail design company, World Trail, has completed the ground truthing of the trails, which requires walking the proposed alignments and fine tuning the trails in response to site specific conditions.

East Gippsland Shire Council mayor, Cr Natalie O’ Connell, said World Trail had made some adjustments to the alignments of the trail design concepts during the ground truthing phase.

“These adjustments have been considered to take advantage of the features discovered and maximise the use of the terrain,” Cr O’ Connell said.

“The total trail length is currently slightly greater than anticipated in the preliminary design due to navigating around private property boundaries and making trail connections. Findings of the detailed ecological, cultural heritage and historical heritage assessments taking place on site from October 7 will further inform the trail network.

“It is anticipated these teams will be on site until the following Sunday. The trail alignments will be further adjusted should anything of significance be discovered during the detailed assessment.

“This marks the continued progression of the project after the project control group recently gave the tick of approval for the preliminary trail design concepts.”

A project design update is expected to be provided to the community by January as part of the draft masterplan document.

A feasibility study into the Omeo MTB project was completed in 2017, which showed the trail will have positive economic impacts for the region. Council is contributing $1.5m to the $4.5m project with the remainder of the funding coming from both state and federal governments.