When John Andrews moved to Maine from Framingham, Mass., more than a decade ago, he was struck by the fact that hiking was basically synonymous with trespassing.

“When I came back to Maine, I thought, ‘Where can I go for a walk?'” he recalled. “I realized that there were no places where a law-abiding family could go for a walk.”

Sure, there were trails, but most were unmarked, on private property and in bad repair. Together with other like-minded Saco residents, Andrews formed the Saco Bay Trails committee, whose members soon began brainstorming about building something along the old Eastern Railroad corridor.

More than a decade later, the Eastern Trail is an established and growing network of public trails funded by state and federal grants, governed by a 12-town Eastern Trail Management District and enjoyed daily by hikers, bikers and folks just out for a short stroll.

Opened July 1, the newest section of the Eastern Trail, 1.6 miles connecting Scarborough and Old Orchard Beach, from Milliken Mills Road to the Scarborough Marsh, represents partnerships among the Maine Department of Transportation, local town officials, private corporations and the tireless efforts of volunteers.

From the Scarborough Marsh, the trail runs through land owned by the state, the town of Scarborough, Verizon Wireless, and Central Maine Power.

Ground down by seasonal flooding and all-terrain vehicles, parts of the former rail bed the trail now runs on were under more than a foot of water before a private construction company, funded by the Maine Department of Transportation, built a hardy walking and biking surface made of stone dust and binding agents. Efforts to build the section ranged from lobbying for funds in Augusta to the last-minute heroics of a construction crew that finished paving an access parking lot just hours before the new trail was officially opened.

“It’s just a gorgeous trail,” Andrews said. “It’s an unbelievable job that (contractor) Grover Construction did … The effort to do these things is so all-consuming, when you hit a success, it’s like, did you really do it? When you come to a success, it’s really quite unreal.”

About 40 people attended the opening ceremony, including representatives from Central Maine Power, Granite State Gas Transmission, Maine Department of Transportation, and Scarborough and Old Orchard Beach government.

The next major project for the Eastern Trail is to complete a six-mile segment connecting Central Maine Medical Center in Biddeford to the town of Kennebunk, including constructing a bridge over the Maine Turnpike.

Scarborough has been heavily involved in the Eastern Trail Alliance since its inception, said Scarborough Town Manager Ron Owens.

“Now you can go all the way from Old Orchard to the Nonesuch River,” he said. “The next big project, for us anyway, is to try to get across or around the Nonesuch River.”

Towns that are members of the Eastern Trail Management District are Kittery, Eliot, South Berwick, North Berwick, Wells, Kennebunk, Arundel, Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Scarborough and South Portland.