Blog: City Blog

Northwest Greenway Connector Nears Completion

Sometime last week, the $1.7 million Northwest Greenway Connector began to actually look like a nearly finished greenway.

That's because contractor crews have moved on past the preliminary tasks such as utility relocations, building retaining walls and installing erosion control devices to the good part - laying down asphalt, landscaping and finessing the final touches.

Looking from Ball Camp Pike, where the greenway goes between residences and Badgett Fields

Looking from Ball Camp Pike, where the greenway goes between residences and Badgett Fields

View from Ball Camp Pike, where the greenway traverses between residences and Badgett Fields

The paving began with the warm weather in March, and by last week, Adams Contracting crews had completed about 85 percent of the asphalt work. The remaining paving is expected to be finished this week, barring heavy rain.

So this key half-mile stretch of trail between Victor Ashe Park and the state-funded pedestrian bridge spanning Western Avenue at Ball Camp Pike, while not open yet, is easy to envision. It's getting close.

What's left to be done, besides the final paving?

City Engineering Manager Amanda O. Koenig says crews will be moving dirt and sodding and seeding around the greenway. Handrails, signs and about 150 feet of guardrail still need to be installed.

Above and below: Different views of a retaining wall on Ball Camp Pike

The Northwest Greenway Connector is strategically important: It will link the 8.9 miles of greenways and sidewalks around the park with another 7.2 miles of sidewalks on Western Avenue and Schaad Road.

Within a three-mile radius of Victor Ashe Park, a walker can access a total of 73 miles of greenways and sidewalks.

The connector is anchored on its southern end by a $3 million 500-foot-long pedestrian bridge over Western Avenue that was funded and built by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

The bridge is intentional and significant, because the City's long-range plan is to eventually extend the greenway southward to connect Western Avenue at the bridge to Middlebrook Pike and on to the Third Creek Greenway. This next phase of work to extend the greenway to Middlebrook Pike is fully funded, and construction will begin in 2023 once design work is finalized and easements have been acquired.

Here's a view of the section of greenway looking toward Victor Ashe Park.

Posted by evreeland On 22 March, 2022 at 2:50 PM