There are very few volunteers trained and capable that can do the type of work that needs to be done to rebuild, realign and re-harden these trails. Sure there can be volunteers integrated into pro groups but we are not talking volunteer vacations described in glossy magazine articles. Mining and moving boulders is potentially dangerous slow work. I have heard the comment attributed to the RMC crew is that a step that can be put in place by one person its not big enough. In many cases the step is a boulder mined off the trail, then grip hoisted above the ground and set in place in the trail so that only a small portion of the boulder is even visible. One person sized rocks are used to wedge the larger boulder in place and as source for scree walls and rock lined water bars. It hard work that few would volunteer to do on day by day basis. Its also not the type of work that can be done with the public wandering through so temporary routes may need to be laid out to bypass the public around the construction sites.
There were volunteer crews that had the skills and had the equipment but most have lost that capability as members aged out. The last real AMC volunteer crew with that capability, the Cardigan Highlanders, were driven out of the AMC, although I believe some of the members have switched their reduced efforts over to state owned lands at Cardigan. I do share the concern that a big chunk of the money could be burned up by Admin costs. AMC has made a major investment at Camp Dodge to support expanded volunteer programs, which are used as revenue to the club and I expect some of the dollars will end up at Camp Dodge. Its a five year program so perhaps a professional manager needs to be hired for the five years? This could 75 to 100K fully loaded yearly cost if they are lucky. Now add in transportation and tooling. RMC runs a pro trail crew on a shoestring budget but there is a major unpaid effort behind the scenes that would be replaced with paid staff on this project.
The lower OBP is going to need complete realignment in many locations as the trail bed has become the drainage, that means major cable and griphoist work to mine, build and harden a complete new trail bed, then the former trail bed has to be reworked with extensive water bars and drainage channels to reduce the velocity of drainage and redirect it into the woods in a manner that it does not continue erosion. Sad to say, permanent obstacles will need to be installed in the old trail bed to dissuade hikers and runners from using it(lots of evidence of that occurring on OBP where stone steps are routinely bypassed by lazy hikers and runners). Falling Waters from the first water crossing down to the last crossing is also in need of major reconstruction in many places. Attempts have been made to deal with the worst sections post Covid but the rocks used just were not big enough and hikers and visitors to the falls undo a lot of the work when they skip the trail bed. In many places along the upper Falling Waters the trailbed is the drainage and the step stones have been bypassed so the entire trailbed needs to be "paved" with rocks.
The actual work on the ridge may be within volunteers capability as the effort is mostly re-establish scree walls along the route except in the rare patches of soil and krumholtz north of Mt Truman and near Lincoln which have trenched and would need a turnpiked and hardened foot bed and scree walls to keep the public out of the trees which will be difficult as those areas are also used a toilet by some. During the Crawford Path work pre Covid, volunteer trail crews were housed at AMC huts at times which would be covered in the budget. The problem is given the location, an 8 hour day is eaten up by 4 hours of hiking up and down unless the crews stays at the hut.
IMHO, this budget will be easily eaten up and will not even cover all the work that needs to be done. At least the state will profit by charging everyone to either park or take the shuttle
