The last leg of Chattanooga's Riverwalk south of the Tennessee River is about set for construction as the trail hits a milestone decades in the making that will link downtown to the heart of St. Elmo.
Bids were to be opened Tuesday to extend the Riverwalk from an existing South Broad trailhead where it now stops to the Incline Railway station amid St. Elmo's commercial district.
Along the way, the Riverwalk will snake south down St. Elmo Avenue, past one side of the future Publix supermarket that's underway, cross Broad Street, and to the bottom of Lookout Mountain.
Blythe Bailey, the Chattanooga Department of Transportation's administrator, said that by the end of 2021, the Riverwalk will stretch to the Chickamauga Dam.
"It's a real boon to neighborhoods and people who want that way to get around the community," he said.
Also, from the Incline, walkers could go south to connect to the Virginia Avenue Greenway through St. Elmo that goes to the Georgia line, Bailey said.
City Councilman Erskine Oglesby said the Riverwalk extension has been in the works for a long time.
"It's now reaching that point," he said.
Chattanooga businessman Mike Mallen, part of a group that owns the 141-acre U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry tract nearby where the last segment of Riverwalk passed through, said the trail is "a recreation amenity like no other."
"We enabled a mile and half of the path," he said. "We always believed it was a recreation amenity that would attract people."
Bailey said there's still more Riverwalk planned, but that will be done north of the river as work eventually calls for a push toward Moccasin Bend.
The extension into the heart of St. Elmo will be 3,800 linear feet of concrete path varying between 10 feet and 12 feet with a five-foot grass strip separating pedestrians and cyclists from vehicle traffic. The project also calls for landscaping and pedestrian lighting.
"It will look and feel like Riverwalk," Bailey said.
At the Publix site, he said the developer has agreed to "a significant contribution" to the project to build that portion along the edge of the shopping center and St. Elmo Avenue.
With the entire extension costing from $2 million to $3 million, Bailey said that up to 80% of the price tag will come from federal grant money with local funding picking up the remainder.
"The majority of the project is funded from non-local dollars," he said. "We're getting a lot of value at a discount to local funding sources."
The Moccasin Bend Task Force began work in 1982 and completed a master plan for the Tennessee Riverpark and the Riverwalk in March 1985. Land acquisition began in the late 1980s. One of the Riverwalk's purposes is economic development.
Mallen said a lot of projects advertise they're near the Riverwalk. He said future development eyed for the foundry site can go right on the Riverwalk.
Mallen said his group even has an agreement to shift the Riverwalk a little within the site if needed, depending on future projects.
He also cited the recent Interstate-24 interchange work that began nearby.
"The corridor is finally having its day," Mallen said.
Bailey said the newest Riverwalk segment will give "a great connection" to the Southside and downtown's core.
"People want that," Bailey said. "We've seen neighborhoods built against the Riverwalk. There's a real demand for people wanting to live in locations which are walkable."
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.