SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) After months of planning and construction, Spartanburg’s River Birch trail is complete.
“We’re really really excited to see it completed, making this crossing over Lawson’s Fork Creek is a great connection to a popular commercial area behind me and a whole bunch of neighborhoods right and left upstream and downstream,” said Ned Barrett, trail development manager for PAL.
Play, Advocate, Live Well, known as PAL, is in charge of the city and county’s Daniel Morgan Trail system, which includes the River Birch Trail. They said this particular new project will make the River Birch Trail safer.
“This just really makes that very important connection that gets people off the road and into a really pretty area but also allows them to move past East Main Street without having to be up on the road, a much safer connection,” said Barrett.
This update opens up Lawson’s Fork Creek, making it visible for the first time to trail-goers. The new extension runs under East Main Street, leading to businesses, including restaurants. PAL has been working with these property owners for a while to make all of this happen.
“There was almost no pushback on this, the property owners understand the value of the asset, that getting people around and active and healthy is a good thing and this gives people more opportunities to get to their shops,” said Barrett.
Extending this trail comes as Spartanburg continues to grow.
PAL said the growth is one of the reasons they’re actively working on more projects that will also connect neighborhoods together.
“This makes about 20-21 miles out of our 55-mile system,” said Barrett.
“We’re working on another 14 miles as part of a large federal grant we received that is more over on the central side of town on the Fairforest creek. We’re also building here on the eastside and westside really trying to tie together all points of the community.”
PAL said the official ribbon cutting for this trail will be held on June 29th.