The steady stream of folks to a portion of the new Shelby Farms Greenline may be stopped — temporarily — by TDOT construction at Holmes Street near East High School.
Construction at Holmes Street was supposed to be completed prior to the opening of the greenline, but the project, which is funded largely by federal dollars, was delayed. Now construction is scheduled to start at the beginning of the year and be completed next August.
But at this morning’s City Council parks committee meeting, engineering division director Wain Gaskins told members that his staff was trying to identify detour routes through area neighborhoods to maintain the flow of the greenline.
Shelby Farms Park executive director Laura Adams was also at the committee meeting this morning:
“Closing the greenline for eight months is very problematic. We need to find ways to minimize that,” she said. “There is so much great buzz around the greenline right now. We’re concerned about this hurting our long-term prospects.”
Holmes Street will be closed to traffic during the construction in an effort to speed up the process.
The Council also asked about new signage near the intersections of the greenline and busy streets such as Highland and Graham. Adams said Shelby Farms felt comfortable putting signage on the greenline itself but would defer to the city on city cross streets.
“It’s incredibly popular, beyond our wildest expectations,” Adams said of the greenline. “We have 400 people per hour at any one location on Saturdays and Sundays. We’re scrambling to be able to meet the popularity of the trail.”
Though security incidents have been few, they recently won a grant to install security cameras along the trail. Adams also told council members to expect good news shortly on the effort to connect the greenline to the fairgrounds and to Overton Park.
