Tag: Shelby Farms Park Conservancy

Categories
News The Fly-By

Bike Repair Stations Now Ready at Shelby Farms Park 

CREDIT: Toby Sells

Four new bicycle repair stations are now ready for cyclists around Shelby Farms Park, further evidence of the city’s deepening investment in bike infrastructure.

The stations are about five feet tall and feature a bike pump, a hands-free bicycle mount, and the tools required for basic repairs. Not a bike mechanic? Get out your smartphone and scan a QR code on the side of the station for step-by-step instructions. The stations are all free to use.

Toby Sells

Bike repair station at Farm Road and Mullins Station

The repair stations are located at the Shelby Farms Greenline trailhead (at Farm and Mullins Station), the Tour De Wolf trailhead, the Germantown Greenway trailhead, (close to the corner of Wolf River Boulevard and Germantown Parkway), and at the Wolf River pedestrian bridge (near Shady Grove and Humphreys).     

Each of the Dero Fixit stations retail at $800 on the Dero website. The Shelby Farms project was funded mainly through a partnership between Shelby Farms Conservancy and Conway Services, a Memphis air-conditioning and plumbing company. The company’s owner, John Conway, said in a statement that his involvement was to simply make “our city be a healthier and more pleasant place to live.”

Though the stations aren’t a multi-million-dollar blockbuster project, they are part of a larger, fundamental change in the way Memphis leaders are thinking about transportation. Miles of bike lanes are now striped throughout the city. The Harahan Bridge project will carry cyclists and pedestrians across the Mississippi River next year. The long-awaited Mid-South Regional Greenprint plan proposes 500 miles of new greenways to connect Shelby, DeSoto, Crittenden, and Fayette counties.   

“We want to do anything we can to encourage pedestrian access to [Shelby Farms Park],” said Cameron Mann, manager of corporate development and communications for Shelby Farms Conservancy. “Prior to the [Shelby Farms Greenline], the only access was with a motorized vehicle. So, the Greenline was a game-changer for us.” 

Mann said the conservancy began working on the project about a year ago. The planning process included interviews with leaders in the bicycling community, like those with bike stores, repair shops, and bicycle clubs. They all wanted repair stations, Mann said, for a more assuring ride in case their chain fell off or tire went flat.

Clark Butcher, owner of Midtown’s Victory Bicycle Studio, said he sees hopeful symbolism in the stations.

“It’s a permanent fixture,” Butcher said. “The things are anchored to the ground. They aren’t going anywhere.”

Bike repair stations have popped up in cities and college campuses across the country in recent years. Leaders have embraced bicycling culture and hope to engrain it in the overall transportation mix of their communities. 

Stations similar to those in Shelby Farms Park are now in place in cities from New Haven, Connecticut, to Salem, Oregon. They’re also on college campuses from Rutgers to Texas Tech. Repair stations are already in place in North Little Rock along the Arkansas River Trail and close to the Big Dam Bridge.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Expanding Greenline To Midtown Will Involve Building Bridge

There’s a plan to extend the Shelby Farms Greenline to Midtown, but there’s a big hurdle — make that two big hurdles — in the way.

Two active rail lines are blocking the planned path of the greenline extending west from Tillman to its eventual end at Tobey Park.

“It’s the same rail line that runs adjacent to Wiseacre [Brewing Company on Broad]. The trail alignment runs in a diagonal to the existing rail lines there,” said the city’s bike and pedestrian coordinator Kyle Wagenschutz.

The solution is to build a bridge over the live rail lines, and the city has received a federal transportation grant for the initial design work. That money will fund an analysis of potential environmental hazards of building a bridge, any drainage issues, and how it will fit underneath the Poplar viaduct and over the railroad.

“At this point, there have been no funds committed for actual construction. We know it will be expensive, several million dollars,” Wagenschutz said. “We’re hoping the next time the federal funding cycle comes around, we’ll be able to request funds. But we have a couple of years.”

He said the city will likely begin the process of selecting a design firm for the bridge in the spring or summer. Right-of-way for the quarter-mile from Tillman to Tobey Park was included in the existing greenline’s right-of-way purchase from CSX Railroad. The current seven-mile greenline is built along an abandoned CSX rail corridor.

In March, construction is expected to begin on the greenline’s eastward expansion. Earlier this month, the Shelby County Public Works Division negotiated a contract with CSX Railroad to purchase the deserted right-of-way from Farm Road to the old Cordova train station on B Street.

“Residents in Cordova have been asking for a better connection to the park for quite some time,” Wagenschutz said. “I think this will be a great addition, particularly in helping to connect a large population of users to the park without them having to drive their cars over.”

Federal grants will cover 75 percent of the cost. Shelby County government allocated $650,000, and the remaining $550,000 was donated by the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy. 

There were a couple of smaller hurdles in the path of the 4.1-mile eastward expansion. In one area, an older trussle bridge must be replaced, and other areas will require improved pedestrian crossings.

“The biggest issue is safe crossing of Germantown Parkway,” said Laura Morris, executive director of the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy. “That was resolved by a design that the city and county engineers came up with to add back the red light at the railroad track [between Macon and Fisher Steel] that was once there when it was a live rail crossing. It will be timed with the two traffic lights close by at Macon and Fisher Steel so it doesn’t have any effect on the traffic.”

Pedestrians will cross the greenline at Germantown Parkway at two signals. First, they’ll cross onto a protected median in the middle of the parkway. They’ll have to push a signal button at the median and wait to cross the other half.

Eventually, the plan is for the greenline to extend east to Oakland, but some of the land along the former rail line to the east belongs to individual landowners.

“The next piece of [the greenline’s expansion] that will take you to the Fayette County line is going to involve patching back together the landowners’ portions of the right-of-way,” Morris said. “But we have had indications from many of the landowners that they would be willing to work with the county.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Sierra Club Proposed Alternatives to Shelby Farms Parkway

CREDIT: Courtesy of Sierra Club

Each weekday, rush hour traffic backs up along Walnut Grove and Farm Road inside Shelby Farms Park, turning part of the city’s largest urban green space into a busy and congested thoroughfare.

The proposed $38 million Shelby Farms Parkway, which is currently under review by the Federal Highway Administration, would divert that traffic around the western edge of the park. But members of the local Sierra Club Chickasaw Group say they have a simpler solution that would save the city millions of dollars and solve traffic problems sooner.

The Sierra Club opposes the Shelby Farms Parkway plan because they believe it takes away too much park land and feels too much like an interstate.

Last week, the Sierra Club held a series of public rallies near Shelby Farms to bring some awareness to the alternatives, which were first proposed by national traffic engineering consultant Walter Kulash of the Center for Humans and Nature in Chicago. Kulash was invited to Memphis last year by the Sierra Club to study alternatives to Shelby Farms Parkway.

Courtesy of Sierra Club

Right: Farm Road with right turn lane added

Those alternatives include: 1) building a longer left turning lane onto Farm Road from eastbound Walnut Grove, 2) building a longer left turning lane for southbound Farm Road traffic turning onto Mullins Station or adding a right turning lane, 3) creating a westbound auxiliary lane from Farm Road to Humphries, 4) extending the northbound merging lane from Farm Road to Walnut Grove, and 5) making adjustments to signal timing.

“When you are headed east on Walnut Grove and you get to Farm Road, that left turn lane is not long enough. It doesn’t hold enough cars, so cars end up waiting to turn left in a lane that should be a travel lane,” said Dennis Lynch, transportation chair for the state and local Sierra Club.

City engineer John Cameron said the Sierra Club’s proposals may provide some short-term relief but that they would only be a “Band-Aid for the situation.” He says traffic counts through the area will rise in the future and that the larger Shelby Farms Parkway project will be needed.

“If the parkway project moves forward, we don’t want to put a whole lot of money into Farm Road. What the Sierra Club is proposing would cost between a half-million and a million dollars just to turn around three to five years later and take it all out,” Cameron said.

Under the Shelby Farms Parkway plan, Farm Road, will be closed to through traffic and used as a pedestrian route. The Memphis City Council delayed a funding match for the parkway plan earlier this year, but Cameron said they’ll be seeking funding from the council again next year. Cameron said the parkway could be fully constructed in three to five years.

Laura Morris, executive director for the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy, said the conservancy is backing the most recent parkway design, which wraps the new road around the western edge of the park. Morris says it does not “damage the park and also relieves traffic.” Morris said she doesn’t oppose the Sierra Club’s ideas, but she doesn’t believe they’ll solve congestion in the future.

“We don’t disagree that temporary fixes like this could relieve some of the pressure right now, but we know that won’t be enough,” Morris said. “It might fix today’s problems but only by a small measure.”

Lynch doesn’t agree.

“We don’t think the parkway is needed and anything that can be done to keep it from being built is a good thing,” Lynch said. “I calculated that the cost to the people stuck in congestion. The value of their time plus the extra gasoline they’re using over five to six years comes to $32 million to $58 million. But it would only cost the city $1 million to make the improvements.”