Greenways in Sparkle City

[Spartan]

This is pretty exciting stuff for Spartanburg!

 

The City has decided to commit funding for 10 miles of greenway trails for $675,000 during the next five years. On top of that, Partners for Active Living will request $1.6 million in federal grants and $1.7 million in private funding is needed.

 

As is typical for the HJ, some of the information is a little vague in terms where they will be built. I took the list from the article and speculated about where I think they are going to go.

• The Mary Black Foundation Rail Trail to Barnet Park - this one sounds like the cycletrack on Converse St that we already know about
• River Birch Trail to East Main Street (Cottonwood Trail north) - probably extending the trail to East Main
• Cottonwood Trail to the Mary Black Foundation Rail Trail - maybe use the Duke Power transmission line corridor through Andrews Farm/Woodburn Rd to connect to the rail trail?
• Wofford Street to the westside - maybe Fairforest Creek from Wofford St to Camelot? This one is the least clear to me about possible trail alignments.

This is a pretty substantial investment for the city and it's residents. I'm pretty excited about the possibilities here.

 

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20141013/ARTICLES/141019836/1083/ARTICLES?Title=City-Council-endorses-10-mile-trail-plan&tc=ar 

[Spartan]

RJ Rockers is releasing a new beer called the Palmetto Trail Pale Ale to help fund the Palmetto Trail. This is by far one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. I'll have to plan to make a trip home to have a few pints!

 

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20150706/ARTICLES/150709851/1083/ARTICLES?p=2&tc=pg&tc=ar

[westsider28]

Digging up this old thread to report that City voted to award a contract (River Birch Trail bids.pdf) to grade and pave a 10-foot wide path (RIVER BIRCH TRAIL.pdf) where the River Birch trail is behind Spartan High (across Sydnor from the main Cottonwood Trails).  This is planned to eventually connect to East Main (see map below).  There are also plans to connect the Drayton Mills Trail under the RR tracks, across Heywood, to East Main as well.  So we're making good progress toward a key trail connection.

[westsider28]

The Cottonwood Trail expansion is well underway.  This section used to be very narrow, and the asphalt was severely buckled.  It has now been graded nice and wide.  Paving still to come.

[TextileTown]

It will be easier to dodge the copperheads now..... I had to stop running this trail because of snakes. 

[westsider28]

The City announced today that they have received a $500,000 grant to extend the Rail Trail from Barnet Park to the Butterfly Creek Greenway in the Northside.  The total cost of the trail is estimated at $1.2 million.  The City will contribute $250,000 and the remaining $472,000 will be raised privately with help from Partners for Active Living.  A map of the route is below.  Great to see another piece of our burgeoning trail network coming together!

[Spartan]

This is great, but I haven't been able to find anything that describes what the trail will be made of. I want to assume that it would be an extension of the cycle track and perhaps a wider sidewalk. $1.2m sounds like a lot, but it's tough to build a mile of trail in an urban setting for that amount of money. I'll be interested to learn more.

[Historyguy]

My understanding is that it will be 10 feet wide  and hard surface.  And yeah, urban trails are expensive!  

[westsider28]

Digging up this thread, which will hopefully be more active as The Dan trail construction picks up over the next few years.

Work is underway on the Three Creeks Trail along Vanderbilt Road.  The part between West Main and Textile Rd is pretty far off the road, right along the creek, and has fine gravel surface right now. 

  

  

The part from Textile Rd to near Raintree Dr is just dirt with some rocky gravel so far. 

  

The whole thing will be paved and should be done later this year.  It will be a bit disconnected at first, but future phases will connect to downtown and further west.

[westsider28]

Partners for Active Living is planning to request a $17.4 million federal BUILD grant for an expansion of trails in Spartanburg.  The grant would fund 14 miles of new trails and two pedestrian bridges across two major highways.  Included would be a 4 mile loop around the DT Airport, a connection between Dawkins and Anderson Mill, bridges over 295/Southport and I-26, and a trail along the Tyger River (the yellow portions on the map below). 

I'm excited to see more ambition when it comes to trail development lately.  Fingers crossed that we can win the grant.

[westsider28]

To help support our trails grant application, PAL is asking community members to write letters of support that will be sent to the County Administrator.  Instructions (a letter sample and where to send) are at this link.  Also, check out this awesome rendering of the potential trail bridge over I-26:

[vicupstate]

Nice bridge !!

[Spartan]

Wow that's phenomenal. I hope they are successful in getting the BUILD grant! I will send my support letter soon!

[westsider28]

Partners for Active Living announced in a recent e-mail that they received a $100,000 grant from the Foundation for the Carolina's Longleaf Fund to construct phase two of the River Birch Trail, which will connect Drayton Mills Elementary School to the new McCracken Middle School. There are also plans to add a spur called the Viking Connector to the new Spartanburg High School.

[TextileTown]

8 hours ago, westsider28 said:

That is beyond exciting!!

[Spartan]

The Cottonwood Trail renovations are complete! For some reason I thought the tornado was last year, but apparently that was this year (I say this today, on what I assume is March 193rd).

 

https://www.goupstate.com/story/news/2020/09/17/spartanburg-cottonwood-trail-boardwalk-renovations-complete-sc/5817106002/

[westsider28]

At Monday's meeting, the County funded the trail connection and canopy which will go under the Norfolk-Southern RR overpass and connect the Lower Drayton Trail to Beverly Road (and thus Heywood Ave). Construction should start in February or March. One step closer to eventually connecting to the River Birch Trail and Cottonwood.

[westsider28]

The portion of trail from Beverly Road to the RR underpass has actually already been paved.  Only the canopied section under the tracks is needed to connect to the Lower Drayton Trail.

[westsider28]

Found this new map of current, under development, and planned trails on the PAL website.  Very impressive, and there are some here I didn't know were planned.  Hope this all comes to fruition!

[westsider28]

More positive trail development news.  County Council supported two projects at their meeting last night:

First is Phase 5 of the Wadsworth Trail (aka a 2.55-mile, 10-ft-wide asphalt multi-use side-path) on Anderson Mill Road from Reidville Road to the old Mill.  Originally it was planned to be done in multiple phases, but an opportunity for a larger ($1M) SCDOT Transportation Alternatives grant arose.  So Council committed an additional $300,000 to the original $200,000 (making the total local match $500,000).  The total project cost is $1.5M.  The grant would be awarded in late-2022, so we're still a ways off (and SCDOT will manage the construction), but it's good to see progress here.  This trail will be HEAVILY used.  Wadsworth Trail P5 - grant request.pdf

The second has no local financial commitment, the County just needs to serve as the applicant.  It's a $19M federal RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) grant.  It would fund 10.7 miles of new trails, 1.25 miles of roadway improvement on West Main near downtown, and a bridge over Hwy 295 near the DT Airport.  The main trail route would follow Fairforest Creek and connect Mayfair Lofts in Arcadia, SMC, Vanderbilt Rd, Park Hills, Highland, Southside, and CC Woodson.  It would also fund a 4-mile loop of the DT Airport and a connection to Dawkins Middle (hence the 295 bridge).  No timeline provided for this one, other than the application is due July 12.  This is very ambitious and would be a true game-changer, so I really hope we are awarded the grant.  RAISE grant info - trails.pdf

(I'm not sure what the status is of the previously applied-for BUILD grant. Perhaps we didn't win it, or perhaps the program was discontinued due to the new administration in Washington?  There is some overlap between this grant request and the last one, so I presume the last one isn't happening for one reason or another.)

[mainonmain]

"(I'm not sure what the status is of the previously applied-for BUILD grant. "

Did not win it.

[westsider28]

Trail bridges for the extension of the Three Creeks Trail have been installed.  Trail work has yet to begin, but the trail will soon be extended from its current terminus at the Vanderbilt - West Main intersection, continuing west along Vanderbilt to WO Ezell.  Further extension / connection depends on whether we win the federal BUILD grant that was applied for.  Here are the two bridges:

Edited August 20, 2021 by westsider28

[westsider28]

The River Birch Trail extension (behind old SHS, now McCracken) from the Milliken Bridge to East Main is well underway and maybe pretty close to completion.  PAL posted photos where it appears to be recently paved.  I walked it a few weeks ago when it was gravel.  It is an additional 0.3 miles (one-way) onto the current 0.6 mile (one-way) trail.  So it will be just short of 1 mile total (one way).  It ends under the East Main bridge over Lawson's Fork Creek, but there's also a (hilly!) spur up to Eastwood Drive at East Main.

Map:

PAL photos:

 

My photos from a few weeks ago (pre-paving):

[westsider28]

On 6/29/2021 at 10:24 PM, westsider28 said:

The second has no local financial commitment, the County just needs to serve as the applicant.  It's a $19M federal RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) grant.  It would fund 10.7 miles of new trails, 1.25 miles of roadway improvement on West Main near downtown, and a bridge over Hwy 295 near the DT Airport.  The main trail route would follow Fairforest Creek and connect Mayfair Lofts in Arcadia, SMC, Vanderbilt Rd, Park Hills, Highland, Southside, and CC Woodson.  It would also fund a 4-mile loop of the DT Airport and a connection to Dawkins Middle (hence the 295 bridge).  No timeline provided for this one, other than the application is due July 12.  This is very ambitious and would be a true game-changer, so I really hope we are awarded the grant.  RAISE grant info - trails.pdf

Huge news: Spartanburg was selected to receive a 2021 RAISE grant of $23.8 million for these projects!!!

Here's the RAISE Capital Grants PDF (we're on page 59).    Edit: H-J article

The award says that the estimated total cost is $66.1 million, so we apparently still have to find some matching funds to complete all the projects.  I think we already have several million in private donations "in the bank", so that will help.  I'll be interested to see what the timeline is for implementation.  Anyway, this is another game-changer for Spartanburg!

RAISE grant trails in orange below:

Edited November 20, 2021 by westsider28

[Spartan]

Typically you don't apply unless you have the matching funds available. This is great news! This is a crapload of $$ for trails. 15 miles ain't shabby!