Update on design and construction

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2020 was a busy year for construction with work continuing on the Murrow Boulevard section running from Gate City Boulevard north and then west to Fisher Avenue and Greene Street.  Work is almost complete with some final landscaping, site furnishings, and signage to be finished.  An assessment is ongoing of the recent repaving of Murrow Boulevard – so you may see cones on the roadway for a bit longer. The bridges along Fisher Avenue that go over the railroad tracks and Church Street are in need of repair and that work will take place in 2021.  The trail will be open and a safe route provided during that construction. This whole section is a dramatic change from a 6-lane divided highway unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists with no landscaping to what you see today – a roadway suitable for vehicular traffic, a 12 foot wide greenway with enhanced landscaping and lots of trees, and a protected bike lane for southbound traffic.

The Downtown Greenway is another step closer after City Council approved an agreement with NC Department of Transportation for construction of Phase 4 and the Atlantic and Yadkin Greenway Phase 1. Eighty percent of the $3.4 million project will come from federal funds with a 20 percent local match, using funds from the 2016 Parks and Recreation Bond and Transportation Bond accounts. The former railroad corridor on the west side will go out to bid in summer 2021 with an anticipated fall start date.  This section should be complete in 2023 and will not only close the four-mile loop of the Downtown Greenway and complete it, but will also build the Atlantic & Yadkin Greenway north to Benjamin Parkway.

Artist Radcliffe Bailey was selected in early 2020 to design and fabricate the last of the 4 cornerstones – Freedom at the intersection of Murrow and Gate City Boulevards (click here for more info on Radcliffe Bailey).  We anticipate construction to begin in fall 2021.

Removal of railroad tracks along the railroad corridor along Phase 4:

Completed greenway trail along the eastern section from Gate City Blvd to Fisher to Greene Street along Murrow Blvd:

A renovation of LoFi Park at the corner of Smith and Eugene Streets was completed in the spring and the new design by David Mudd and Justin Vettel, Permaculture Gardeners includes berms with boulders and new trees, and a rain garden in addition to an open lawn space.  The grass is greener than it ever has been before with the addition of astroturf.

Click here for map of Open Sections.

 

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