The initial study funded by ARC covered primarily the 100 miles of the river that flowed through metro Atlanta. But over time, in Ray’s mind, the plan grew more ambitious. Why not a greenway meandering for 125 miles from Buford Dam to Chattahoochee State Park, traveling through seven counties and 19 cities along the way? Why not connect all the parks that already exist, creating one continuous public realm that’s accessible through other trail networks, opening it to one million people living within a 15-minute bicycle ride?
THAT’S THE MASTER PLAN, AT LEAST, WHICH CURRENTLY EXISTS AS A YELLOW LINE ON A MAP. THE FIRST REAL PROOF OF CONCEPT IS UNDERWAY IN COBB COUNTY, IN THE FORM OF THE 2.4-MILE PATHWAY THAT’S OFFICIALLY KNOWN AS PHASE I OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER TRAIL PEDESTRIAN IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT.
“We’ve done a good job as a region hiding the river behind airports, railroad tracks, sewer treatment plants and industrial parks. The river has some hard-to-penetrate land uses along it,” Ray said. “But just across the road, there are thousands of rooftops. So how do we connect all those people who live and work near the river, to where they can play along the river? Tributary trails, like the Silver Comet Trail and the Proctor Creek Greenway in Atlanta, the Big Creek Greenway that goes from Roswell to Alpharetta. That’s how we get all these people to the river through these difficult land uses.” That’s the master plan, at least, which currently exists as a yellow line on a map. The first real proof of concept is underway in Cobb County, in the form of the 2.4-mile pathway that’s officially known as Phase I of the Chattahoochee River Trail Pedestrian Improvements Project. Thorsen’s team at Gresham Smith— which partnered with SCAPE Landscape Architecture of New York—conducted the initial planning, took stock of the topography, and even incorporated some Civil War archaeology sites. The process required a little inventiveness, employing some ideas Gresham Smith used while building bridges and boardwalks in the Florida Keys. “It was really a testing ground for all these ideas,” Thoresen said. “And then we kind of took what we thought was kind of the best approach to creating a natural, wooded, scenic experience. We knew this was a small site, but we didn’t want it to be a trail to nowhere, so it connects to the walking paths in Cobb County Park off Discovery Boulevard. But we also knew that eventually, it would connect to much larger trails on either end. So we wanted to use that as an opportunity to showcase the nature and the surrounding settings.” And while the Cobb County trail is designed to be a small example of the larger Chattahoochee RiverLands project, there are bound to be variations over the course of the trail’s proposed 125-mile length—due to differences in topography and river access, but also because local municipalities are each responsible for their individual sections. The connective tissue will be signage that is consistent throughout, letting visitors know that they’re in the Chattahoochee RiverLands, just like the white blazes that always identify the Appalachian Trail. N
28 Engineering Georgia
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