3000 feet long? Or is that just the landscaped and paved part? 3000 feet isn't very long if you're wanting to walk or bike for real exercise. I suppose it's a start though, on a great sounding project.
A small group of Columbia County officials and developers toured Tuesday a new path that's available for bikers and walkers through the woods of Grovetown near Euchee Creek.
Each person following the path, located off Chamblin Road in the Canterbury Farms subdivision, praised the recreational and educational value of the trail as they navigated through a mini forest of small palmetto trees and large hardwoods. County officials hope to use the path, which is about 3,000 feet long, as a prototype for a trail system that might eventually connect Grovetown and Savannah Rapids Pavilion.
Funded by Ivey Residential LLC and built by Lonergan and Son Inc., the trail cost about $200,000. Developers built it on a swath of potential green space that the county likely will purchase for about $80,000, said Barry Smith, the county's community and leisure services director.
"What Ivey did is the perfect example of what we're looking for in the public-private relationships we want to develop to build this trail system," Mr. Smith said.
A greenway master plan sets as a goal the construction of a trail system, connecting to Grovetown's Euchee Creek Trails and then following the Euchee Creek basin to Patriots Park. From there, the trail would extend from Bartram Trail through Riverside Park, circumnavigate the proposed Evans Town Center Park, and connect to an asphalt path on Evans to Locks Road that goes to Savannah Rapids Pavilion.
Though a 10-foot-wide slab of concrete might stand out in the woods, contractor Tripp Lonergan said his company took great pains to keep the area as pristine as possible.
"It looks like it just fell out of the sky," county landscape architect and community forester Preston Duffie said.
As part of the trail, developer Mark Ivey hopes to build a small parking lot to cater to hikers and bikers visiting the trail from outside the Canterbury Farms neighborhood.
"We already have people coming to use it" despite the start of the trail abutting a dirt road in the neighborhood still in the early stages of construction, Mr. Ivey said.
Mr. Duffie estimated that as many as 100 plant and tree species line the trail.
"This is the kind of thing where we could get some school kids out here to learn about horticulture," county Commissioner Lee Anderson said. "Or, it's great for senior citizens wanting to get some exercise.
"There's just no end to the things you could do out here."
Reach Donnie Fetter at (706) 868-1222, ext. 115, or donnie.fetter@augustachronicle.com.
Comments
3000 feet long? Or is that just the landscaped and paved part? 3000 feet isn't very long if you're wanting to walk or bike for real exercise. I suppose it's a start though, on a great sounding project.
This area could us a series of this type of greenway. The one in North Augusta is nice.
I am excited to read about this.
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