Do we know when the city plans to reassess (hopefully expand) where greenways can be created, so it isn’t only in areas that are marked as environmentally sensitive?
Have the survey results been posted?
They’re still taking results as far as I can tell.
I imagine it’s going to be quite a while after the survey results are in before we see those results reflected in a reassessed master plan
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I thought the issue of greenways only being in sensitive stream corridors was addressed in the 1989 greenway plan update. That introduced the concept of “Greenway Connectors”. There is a network of corridors designated as such throughout the city, but not much has been done to implement them.
For example, there is one such designated corridor (In the plan since 1989!) alongside the Beltline from Jones Franklin to Western Boulevard. I tried to raise as much stink as I could during the planning for the Beltline widening, to demand this as mitigation for the impacts, but I was just one raving lunatic in a crowd of hundreds at the public meetings, and absolutely nobody seemed to care or want to listen. Even people in the city’s planning department seemed completely uninterested or dismissive.
WAKE UP, RALEIGH!!
Asheville is getting ready to have their I-26 connector project built and they managed to get all sorts of greenway trail connections tacked on as community impact mitigation. SO. FRUSTRATING. We could have done it here, too. Instead we get a turd of a freeway, complete with diverging diamond interchange at Western Boulevard.
So I think the restriction on designating greenways outside of stream corridors is not that much of an issue, it’s just that the attention to and motivation for implementing these Greenway Connectors has been sorely lacking.
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Survey Alert
Capital Area Greenway Master Plan Update
Direct to Survey Link
I’m not sure if the survey is new, but it was a new email in my inbox so if this survey was posted before, I apologize for the duplicate.
with all the steel suspension bridges on the big greenway to johnston county one would think the short portion near capital could be fixed by now.
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I was supposed to work on this fix at a former company. The initial problem was a bad geotechnical design, that shouldn’t have been constructed the way it was with such a high rock line and scour potential. So there wasn’t a quick fix possible. What added to the delay was that the city was slow in figuring out what they wanted with that trail area. There were a few concepts tossed around with some trail deviations to get away from the area in question with a high rock line.
Even with all that, we just kept waiting on the right to proceed to start the design. I’ve since left the company just over a year ago, so I’m not sure the status.
The reference to the suspension bridges, these are extremely expensive when compared to typical greenway construction costs, and typically not an option unless the city/town has other funding for the project.
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thanks for that info. i doubted the same wood structure would be done but was hoping some safe route (a path) woudl be finalized to link back to ratchford drive and carry on over the swampy area to the east.
I lived in reno, NV for 10 years, and oddly this city and the Truckee river bisected it west to east for the most part and had a bike path along the length of the river in town. it was actually quite easy to bike on a N-S or S-N collector street that had bike lanes and then hit the bike path along the Truckee River which was a generally west to east path, enjoy that section, and then hit another N-S or S-N collector st with a bike path. map shows a regular route of mine plus photos. room for improvement, sure but theconnections worked well for me at the time. map is of a regular route that I took.
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I believe that is the plan. They still need to construct some boardwalk, but will shifting it away from the problem areas, then the trail will connect with Ratchford.
Do you (or anyone) know when it will be started/completed? I live nearby and it has been down for like 4 years. Super annoying as that is a crucial connection point
According to the website, bidding was completed in October. It lists an expected start as Jan 2021, with completion in July.
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It would be great if they created an access point on the residential side of Ratchford Drive, but I know there is a pretty steep elevation change in that small area.
Are there still long term plans to connect Ratchford across the creek, through the car dealership and connect at the intersection with Capital and Yonkers Road? Then redevelop all that land that is now a car dealership (and formerly the Raleigh heliport HAHA)? Does anyone else remember this from years ago?
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It strikes me that the selected alternative does not “play nice” with the planned connection of Ratchford Drive. Once Ratchford is connected, the bridge over the creek will dump the greenway out in the no man’s land between Ratchford and the Beltline off ramp
Unless I’m mistaken, I haven’t seen any plans to connect both portions of Ratchford in the near to medium term. But I agree with you. If/when they do, they will have to realign the greenway from their preferred option.
I’m glad there is finally some action here. This has been out way too long. Having said that. It will add some nice scenic viewpoints of the car dealership to the greenway.
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Sharing this here as well.
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I took a look at this survey last night. While I appreciate they are requesting public input, it’s a survey about the plan & process to update the master plan. Like they are thinking about getting started. It’s not a survey about the Greenway and improvements, changes or updates we would like to see.
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