news-record.com

GREENSBORO - Work should begin March 2, weather permitting, on the first phase of the $26 million, 4.8-mile recreational greenway around downtown.

The initial link, which will cost $1.3 million, will run from the ramp at Freeman Mill Road through the Greensboro College sports campus south of Lee Street to South Eugene Street, a distance of 1,800 feet.

"One thing that is so nice about this portion of the greenway ... it will have sort of a pastoral look," said Susan Schwartz, executive director of the Cemala Foundation, which has pledged $1.5 million to the project.

Work on the first phase should be finished by early summer; landscaping will be added in the fall. The project will include lighting, benches and public art.

The greenway, which will provide a 12-foot-wide path for walking, biking, skating, running and socializing, will cut through or along more than a dozen city neighborhoods.

When the greenway is complete, a process that should take five to 10 years, Greensboro will be the only city in North Carolina with a paved trail encircling its downtown.

The project will be paid for using a combination of health and transportation grants, foundation money and local bond money.

Organizers plan no formal ground breaking. Rather, city officials and residents of the Warnersville neighborhood, which borders the first section of the greenway, will be invited to a community celebration from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. March 7.

"We are going to use this as a model as we move along the greenway," said Dabney Sanders, the project manager. "We are going to do these small celebrations for each neighborhood as we start subsequent phases."

No contractor for the first phase has been identified, but some improvements have already begun. An overgrown, chain-link fence behind several properties along Lee Street has been replaced by a decorative fence.

"I think its a good example of the before and after of how a lot of this is going to look," said Trip Brown, co-chairman of an Action Greensboro committee that is driving the project.

Organizers believe the greenway will enhance under-used property, stimulate development along its route, relieve traffic congestion, link neighborhoods and promote physical activity.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com