News

Council to take up $1.2M greenway contract

Bicycle riders have already discovered the new 1.6-mile segment of the Oklawaha Greenway. Now a gravel path, it will be paved from where it forks off the existing trail to Berkeley Mills Park.

By Bill Moss, Published: August 5, 2015

Bicyclists, walkers and runners should be able to use a new North Main Street to Berkeley Park segment of the Oklawaha Greenway by next summer.

The Hendersonville City Council on Thursday will take up approval of a contract to complete the 1.6-mile section of paved greenway with landscaping, signage, bicycle racks and bottle filling stations. The only bid came from Trace and Co. of Mountain Home, which offered to do the job for $1.17 million. (After Trace’s sole bid was submitted on July 21, the city re-advertised the job for July 29, when Trace was again the only bidder.)
The project is expected to start by October and should be done by next summer. An NCDOT grant is covering 80 percent of the cost with the city providing a 20 percent match. The total amount was budgeted at $1.1 million but the state agreed to chip in an extra $100,000 to fund the gap, City Engineer Brent Detwiler said.
The greenway along Mud Creek will be 10 feet wide with 2-foot gravel shoulders. The greenway will connect Jackson Park and Patton Park to Berkeley Park, the city’s mostly undeveloped parkland next to the Kimberly Clark plant.
Besides the paved greenway, the project includes pavement marking, drainage work, the planting of 500 trees and 200 shrubs, 600 feet of split rail fence, a kiosk, solar-powered lighting at a parking lot and signage.