City Council members were told Tuesday that work will start in about a month to complete the Riverwalk to the lower Incline Railway station in St. Elmo.
Blythe Bailey, city transportation director, also said that the final phases of the South Chickamauga Creek Greenway will be completed by early summer.
And he said the city is getting ready for bidding and construction of a Riverwalk extension along the North Shore. It will go along Manufacturers Road to the gateway to Moccasin Bend at Hamm Road.
Mr. Bailey said when the projects are through there will be over 22 miles of first class greenway trails connecting many neighborhoods in Chattanooga.
He said the work to finish the Riverwalk is a 240-day contract so it should be finished by the end of the year.
It will go from the current terminus at Middle Street past the new Publix grocery and along a widened sideway to the Incline. Mr. Bailey said the last leg will include the same high quality detail, including lighting, as the rest of the famed walkway.
Mr. Bailey said the section of the Riverwalk where a new TDOT road project is underway will have to be closed for a number of months. However, he said a trail detour has been worked out.
He said the Virginia Avenue Greenway in St. Elmo has proven popular, and it will have a connection to the Incline terminus of the Riverwalk.
He said there have been four sections of the South Chickamauga Creek Greenway unfinished between the Faith Road trailhead and the Brainerd Levee. One of those has been completed, and work on the others is underway.
Part of that section is being built on a boardwalk, he said.
When that trail is completed, it will be possible to walk or ride from the Riverwalk to Camp Jordan Park in East Ridge. The trail has long been complete from the Brainerd Levee to Camp Jordan. Another section that has long been in use and which also contains a boardwalk goes from the Riverwalk to the Faith Road trailhead.