Come learn about preliminary studies for the Swannanoa Greenway during a Winter Warmer Celebration of Asheville Greenway Programs from 5 to 7 p.m. Jan. 16 at Highland Brewing, 12 Old Charlotte Highway.
This will be the first greenway in east Asheville. Members of the Asheville Greenway Committee will be there there to share information with residents about other greenway projects also planned for the near future.
The Swannanoa River Greenway is a greenway corridor of the City’s Greenway Master Plan. It starts at Amboy Road and follows the Swannanoa River to Azalea Park and ends at the intersection of Azalea Road and Tunnel Road in East Asheville. The corridor is 7.5 miles long in its entirety. This corridor is a significant part of the Wilma Dykeman Plan, the oldest greenway plan in Asheville and Buncombe County.
The City is working with a team of consultants led by Equinox on two sections of the Swannanoa Greenway Corridor. The teams have been working on two studies within this greenway corridor. One segment is a corridor study that starts at Hendersonville Road and Swannanoa River Road/Thompson Street. This corridor study is funded by a grant from the Bike and Pedestrian Division of NCDOT.
The other is an engineering design that begins at the eastern end of Thompson Street near the Swannanoa River Road/South Tunnel Road intersection and travel east to the Azalea Park area. The project will be paid for with $3.6 million in voter-approved bond money for the design, engineering, land acquisition, public engagement and construction of this greenway. Together, both studies address about 3.5 miles of the whole greenway corridor.
Greenways are consistently ranked by Asheville residents as one of the top desired projects to implement. The Asheville Brewers Alliance has identified the Swannanoa Greenway as their most desired greenway corridor. They have been raising money through the Brewers for Greenways Initiative because they identify this corridor as the corridor that would have the most beneficial impact to their businesses as it connects the River Arts District, the South Slope and East Asheville.
Connect Buncombe and Asheville on Bikes are co-sponsors of the Winter Warmer Celebration of Asheville Greenway Programs.
Come on out to this Winter Warmer Celebration! Get information and review the various pathways under consideration.
Other greenway projects coming up
- Construction is slated to begin in spring 2019 on the French Broad River West Bank Greenway, a 1-mile stretch that will connect to French Broad River Park on one end and the existing half-mile French Broad River West Greenway that runs by New Belgium Brewing.
- French Broad River East Bank Greenway, a 2.2-mile greenway, is under construction as part of the River Arts District Transportation Improvement Project (RADTIP).
- Construction is planned in 2019 on the Town Branch Greenway in the Southside neighborhood. That greenway will incorporate interpretive markers that honors the neighborhood’s history before urban renewal.
- And a Greenway Master Plan process will begin in 2019.
For more information, visit ashevillenc.gov/greenways. Or contact Greenways Coordinator Lucy Crown at LCrown@ashevillenc.gov or 828-259-5805.