Greenway getting a little longer

Construction on three to four miles of paved trail along South Chickamauga Creek will begin within weeks, officials said this week.

"It's ready for a trail to be built," Rick Wood, executive director of the Trust for Public Land, said Monday. "This is a huge step. This is building the heart of the project."

Chunks of the South Chickamauga Creek Greenway already are in place along the Brainerd levee and near the Waterhaven subdivision off Harrison Pike, officials said.

But seven to eight miles still need paving, Mr. Wood said.

The Trust for Public Land and city officials have acquired all the property needed for the trail, he said. Over the last several years, the two entities have been raising money for the project.

Mr. Wood said the money for the new portion comes from federal highway transportation funds, stimulus money and donations from the Lyndhurst and Benwood foundations. A total of $2.65 million will be spent on the project, he said.

Once it is complete, users will find a part of the creek and Chattanooga "never seen before," he said, such as a stretch that winds through a 100-foot-high gorge and follows gentle bends through flat, wooded areas.

City Engineer Bill Payne said construction will start the first week of March and should be finished by early November.

Parks and Recreation Director Larry Zehnder said no timeline is set to complete the entire South Chickamauga Creek Greenway.

"The timeline is dictated by the availability of funds," he said.

Once finished, the trail will run from the Tennessee Riverwalk in Chattanooga to Camp Jordan in East Ridge, about 14 miles, Mr. Wood said. About five miles are complete, he said.

Chattanooga officials began planning the South Chickamauga Creek Greenway in 1995 and contract workers started paving parts of it in 2000, he said.

Sandy Kurtz, co-chairwoman of the South Chickamauga Creek Greenway Alliance, said construction began in the 1990s. She hopes that someday a bicyclist or walker will be able to go along the greenway from the Tennessee River to the Chickamauga Battlefield in Georgia.

"It's happening," she said. "It's coming along."