The Alpharetta City Council has approved a 4,400-foot extension of the Big Creek Greenway that will take the walking-biking trail north from Webb Bridge Road to Marconi Drive which is accessible from Windward Parkway.
The $1.56 million project is part of the Greenway master plan with J.J.E. Constructors Inc. submitting the low bid of $1.26 million. J.J.E. Constructors have a track record of completing 14 multi-use trail projects, 10 of those budgeted at $1 million or more, and includes building the Alpharetta Greenway segment that went from Haynes Bridge Road to the YMCA on North Point Parkway.
Under the Ga. Department of Transportation's Traffic Enhancement Program, GDOT will kick in the other $300,000.
The Alpharetta City Council voted unanimously March 16 to accept the bid. In addition to the GDOT contribution, the city will use funds collected from the hotel-motel tax that funds the Alpharetta Business Sidewalk Fund and some bond funds. No General Fund dollars will be used.
Alpharetta Recreation and Park Director Mike Perry said this is the latest leg in the master plan for the Big Creek Greenway, which will eventually tie into the Forsyth Greenway as the two recreational trails build toward each other.
"We are fortunate that we have some designated funds for this project, so we are not cutting into the city budget in a tight year," said Perry. "Actually, this has been a fortunate time to do this project. It was originally budgeted at $2.5 million. But contractors are hungry, and we got the total project for about $1 million less. So from an efficiency standpoint, this will be a great project for us."
A feature of the project will be where it starts up at the current end of the trail on Webb Bridge Road. The majority of the new trail will be 12 feet in width and will go about 800 feet east of where the trail ends now and then cross under Webb Bridge Road. The tunnel will take the path safely across that main thoroughfare.
The tunnel will be in the form of a 90-foot-long culvert under Webb Bridge Road that will be 14 feet wide and 8 feet tall. The city is also working on a lighting plan with Georgia Power so that the culvert will be safely lit from sunset to sunrise.
On the other side, the trail will cross Big Creek with a bridge of 121 feet.
To install the culvert, it will be necessary to temporarily close Webb Bridge Road between North Point Parkway and Westwind Lane. The posted detour route for the closure will utilize Old Milton Parkway, Kimball Bridge Road, and Webb Bridge Way. The road closure will only be permitted during the months of June and July while Fulton County schools are not in session. So the maximum duration for the road closure will be 60 days.
The trail will narrow to 10 feet in some areas to keep from encroaching on some wetlands or residential property.
With the 0.8-mile extension, the total length of Alpharetta's Big Creek Greenway will be 8 miles from Marconi Drive off Windward Parkway on the north end to just above Mansell Road where it connects to the Roswell Greenway.
At the Marconi nexus the city will have parking spaces for 15 to 20 cars, so Windward residents could drive to Marconi and enter the trail at that point.
"There is a cul-de-sac on Marconi Drive that will allow us to almost reach Windward Parkway. Eventually we would want to connect to the Forsyth Greenway, probably around Union Hill Road. The ticklish part will be to get across Windward Parkway. But that is the next step," Perry said.
Asked if this is the right time to take on such a project with the economy down and tax revenues down, Perry said he thought it was.
"It is well under budget, for one thing. For another, multi-use trails are the No. 1 choice among Alpharetta residents in all of our leisure interest surveys – and not by just a simple majority. Support for trails comes in at 85 to 90 percent," he said.
"That is a clear mandate from the residents of the city. There is always a lot of interest in the trails."
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Brian and Jennifer Vanderhoff
North Fulton County REALTORS
Vanderhoff Real Estate
(770) 888-9269
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Labels: Alpharetta, Big Creek Greenway
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 10:21 AM
