Three and a half miles of the Neuse River Trail is expected to open in August, another 8.7 miles in October and 7.0 more miles in November; coupled with the 6.5 miles opened last fall, the 28-mile greenway running along its namesake river from Falls Lake south to the Wake County line will be more than 90 percent done, at 26 miles. The entire trail, according to Raleigh greenway planner Vic Lebsock, should be done by mid-July 2013.

“We’re under construction, everything appears on target,” Lebsock said last week. “We don’t expect there will be delays of more than 30 days on any of [the sections].”

The Neuse River Trail is part of $35 million in Raleigh greenway construction currently underway that will add about 42 miles of pavement within two years.

The first 6.5-mile stretch of the Neuse River Trail, from the Falls Lake dam south to the WRAL Soccer Complex, opened last fall. When completed, it will link with 5 miles of greenway in Johnston County extending into Clayton. The resulting 33-mile greenway will be the longest in the state.

In August, 3.5 miles of Neuse River greenway will open between Anderson Point Park and Skycrest Drive to the north. (This stretch has existed since the 1990s as a gravel path.) In November, Lebsock says the 7.0-mile stretch from Skycrest north to U.S. 401 will open. Unfortunately, there’s a 1.2-mile gap between the north end of this trail and the first 6.5 miles of trail that opened in the fall, and that is the last stretch expected to open, next July.

Also expected to open in October is the 5.7-mile stretch from Auburn Knightdale Road south to the Wake County Line. That stretch will connected with the Johnston County greenway, creating a nearly 11-mile run into Clayton. North from Auburn Knightdale Road, the connection to Anderson Point will be made in two phases: a 3.0-mile run up to Poole Road that will open in October and the remaining 1.2 miles north from Poole Road, expected to open in February 2013. At that point, there will be 25.5 miles of continuous greenway uninterrupted by street crossings, from U.S. 401 south to Clayton.

What makes the eventual 33-mile run from Falls dam to Clayton all the more alluring is the fact there will be no street crossings to contend with. A series of bridges over the Neuse and smaller tributaries and passages under roads crossing the river will make for the longest unimpeded multi-use paved trail in the state.

The Neuse River Trail becomes even more significant as connections are made at Crabtree Creek and Walnut Creek.

• Walnut Creek: A stretch of connecting trail between existing greenway at Worthdale Park and New Hope Road to the east is expected to be begin construction within a month, the stretch from New Hope to the Neuse by mid-summer. The entire stretch should be done within a year, creating a 14-mile run along Walnut Creek from Lake Johnson to the Neuse River (pending completion, too, of connecting greenway through N.C. State’s Centennial Campus).
• Crabtree Creek: Currently, the Crabtree Creek Trail follows its namesake creek from just shy of Ebenezer Church Road downstream to Milburnie Road, a distance of 11 miles. The remaining 4.6 miles from Milburnie to the Neuse River Trail should go out to bid this fall, with completion targeted for late 2013 or early 2014. That connection, plus the nearing completion of the House Creek Greenway, would make it possible to take greenway from the Neuse Trail on the east side of Raleigh through Umstead State Park, into Cary and nearly to the American Tobacco Trail. Construction on the last remaining link of the ATT — a pedestrian bridge over I-40 and a little more than a mile of connecting greenway — is set to begin this summer after prolonged delays. When completed, the 22-mile ATT will link western Wake County with downtown Durham.

Unrelated to the Neuse River Trail and its east/west connectors, the 5.67-mile Honeycutt Trail is scheduled to go to bid in May, begin construction mid-summer. That trail will link existing greenway heading north from the Crabtree Creek Trail and around Shelley Lake north to the Mountains-to-Sea trail along the south shore of Falls Lake.

The Growing Greenway

View Raleigh Greenways in a larger map

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A week’s worth of Triangle greenways

Thursday, April 12: House Creek Greenway to Open June 25 (read: Memorial Day).

Monday, April 16: 90 Second Escape: The Triangle’s Growing Greenway System.

Today: Neuse River Trail: Another 3.5 miles by August, 16.1 miles by November.

Tomorrow: Within two years, Raleigh will have more than 110 miles of mostly interconnected greenway. What happens from there? A conversation about the future with the man who’s been overseeing the growth, Raleigh greenway planner Vic Lebsock.

Friday: The Triangle’s greenway system in two years, and beyond.

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Today’s 90-Second Escape: The Triangle’s Growing Greenways.

Today, we kick off a week of greenway coverage with a 90-Second Escape, this time in slideshow form. Today’s escape focuses on the $35 million in greenway construction projects working in Raleigh, and how those projects will drastically alter the face of Raleigh’s — and the Triangle’s — greenway network.

Also this week:

Tuesday: A construction update on Raleigh’s Neuse River Trail and other major greenway projects.

Wednesday: After the aforementioned projects are completed and the core of Raleigh’s greenway system is in place, then what? A conversation with Raleigh greenway planner Vic Lebsock.

Thursday: Weekend plans — with a focus on greenways.

Friday: The big picture: A look at how the Triangle’s greenway network will look in less than two years.

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For years, the Triangle’s greenways consisted of strings of half-mile and mile-long bits of elbow macaroni, scattered about. Signs — signs showing you where you were and where you could go — weren’t a priority on a path that simply went from Point A to Point B. But as those greenways grew and those bits of elbow macaroni joined to form longer and interconnected noodles, the need for direction, for signs, increased. For the past decade or so, the main complaint about local greenways has been the absence of signs.

Cary began correcting that problem on its greenways a couple years ago, placing distictive, hard-to-miss blue and green signs at all trailheads, directional signs where trails met or crossed and the occasional kiosk-mounted locator map. Three months ago, Raleigh began following suit.

“We have some on the Walnut Creek greenway and around Lake Lynn, in addition to the ones you saw on Crabtree Creek Trail,” Vic Lebsock said last week. Lebsock said signs will now go up with every new greenway stretch added to the system — such as the House Creek and the Neuse River greenways — and are being added to existing high-use trails and trails where the city has received the most complaints.

The stretch of Crabtree Creek Trail I was on would certainly fall into the latter category. From where I stood straddling my bike at the spur leading to Alleghany Drive northwest to the greenway’s current northern end just shy of Duraleigh Road, distance of less than 4 miles, there are six spurs. Before the signs — done in a maroon and pea green color scheme — you could very easily take a right when you should have gone left and find yourself on a 4-mile diversion north past Shelley Lake.

The signs will be especially welcome with the completion of the House Creek Greenway, expected later this year. That 2.9-mile stretch will link the 11.7-mile Crabtree Creek Trail and 20 miles of trail to the south running from Southeast Raleigh into Cary.

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Go here to find a map of Raleigh’s greenway system.

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“We’ve been a little slowed by the weather,” says Raleigh senior greenway planner Vic Lebsock of the winter’s cold and snow, “but we should be done by the end of this year.”

Construction, as many of you have noticed, has begun at the south end of the trail, at Wade Avenue and the Beltline. That’s where House Creek will tap into the Reedy Creek Greenway. (An extension running less than a quarter mile north along Wade Avenue will  hook into the bike-laned Ridge Road.) Lebsock says the confluence of that extension with the House Creek and Reedy Creek greenways will require a “bridge … that will be like a cloverleaf.” Can’t wait to see that.

When House Creek is completed, Raleigh will have nearly 38 miles of interconnected greenway. You could, for instance, ride a bike west from Worthdale Park along Walnut Creek in Southeast Raleigh, hang a right along Rocky Branch through N.C. State University, pick up the Reedy Creek Greenway and take it to the House Creek Greenway, take it over to the Crabtree Trail Greenway and travel almost all the way to WakeMed, a distance of about 22 miles — all on greenway. If you lived in North Raleigh near Shelley Lake, you could ride greenway to the south edge of downtown. If you lived in Southeast Raleigh and went to N.C. State, you could ride the greenway to class. If you were at Crabtree Valley Mall and thought your appendix was on the fritz, you could ride the greenway almost to WakeMed.

In short, when it’s done, the House Creek Greenway will turn Raleigh’s greenway system into a legitimate secondary transportation network for cyclists. Throw in the city’s 100-mile network of bike routes — roads deemed safe for cyclists — and, well, I wouldn’t call Raleigh Portland just yet. But the City of Oaks is making a good run.

Raleigh’s system promises to get even bigger soon. According to Lebsock:

• Bids are expected to go out shortly on construction of the 6-mile Honeycutt Creek Greenway. Honeycutt will extend existing greenway that runs south from the Crabtree Creek Trail through Shelley Lake to the Crabtree Creek Trail greenway, north to Falls Lake. Expect that stretch to be finished by the end of 2012.
• This fall, the city expects to bid the missing stretch of Crabtree Creek Trail greenway extending from it’s current southeast terminus at Milburnie Road to the Neuse River. That 4-mile stretch is expected to be completed the second quarter of 2013.
• Two more miles of Walnut Creek Greenway also are expected to be bid soon. That will take the greenway to New Hope Road. Eventually, the Walnut Creek Greenway will continue on to the Neuse River.

It’s a lot to keep up with. Lebsock says the city hopes to help you keep pace with recent developments through a new greenway map that should be available in two to three weeks. The current map was issued in 2008.

Encouraging as the House Creek development is, an even longer stretch of greenway is scheduled to open this summer in Raleigh. It’s — dang! I’m outta space for today.

Return tomorrow for the exciting conclusion to that sentence.

Go here to find a map of Raleigh’s greenway system.

* The northwest end of the Reedy Creek Greenway meets with a 5-mile stretch of fine, hard-surface gravel that runs through Umstead State Park, connecting with the Black Creek Greenway in Cary. That adds another 10.6-miles of continuous, bike-friendly trail.

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