“PLEASE put greenway connecting under Independence to connect new CPCC expansion w/Cordelia Park.”
A few feet away, I spotted Gwen Cook, the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department’s greenway planner. I asked if that was her suggestion, I asked. She chuckled and confessed..
The issue is a thorny one. You can walk on the greenway all the way from behind Park Road Shopping Center through Freedom Park, past Central Piedmont Community College and up to East Seventh Street. There, the greenway is halted by a tangle of freeway ramps going under-over-around-and-through, as I-277 meets with U.S. 74 (Independence Boulevard), forcing both Seventh Street and Central Avenue onto bridges over the freeway traffic. From the Seventh Street bridge you can see Little Sugar Creek far below, except where it’s been forced into culverts.
But as the crow flies it’s just a few hundred yards (well, maybe a little more) to where the greenway picks up again at 12th Street and heads north to Cordelia Park at North Davidson Street and Parkwood Avenue. (Here’s a link to the park department’s greenways page, with maps.)
From what Ive been told, there’s no official plan at this point for how to connect the segments. So, I asked Cook, what would you really like to see? Her idea: Build an iconic bridge that would weave over and under the highway ramps and lanes.
I can almost see it now – a visually splendid bridge soaring and swooping across the chasm of highway, with bright colors and sharp design. Other cities have found donors or tourism tax dollars to build one-of-a-kind bridges. (Click here to see the Greenville, S.C., pedestrian bridge) Below is the Santiago Calatrava-designed Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay in Redding, Calif., built with help from a local foundation. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)
