Clarks Creek Greenway Corridor Study

Merrick & Company is providing design, coordination and site evaluation of the roughly four-mile corridor for the future extension of the Clarks Creek Greenway. Merrick developed preferred greenway routing, alternate routes and cost estimates of the construction for the future greenway extension. For this effort, Merrick coordinated multiple site walks to review the corridor with Mecklenburg County staff, as well as Parks and Recreation staff from the Town of Huntersville. Merrick also identified parcels that would need to be acquired for the greenway, additional parcels that could serve as parking facilities, restroom facilities and future county park sites along the greenway route. Various exhibits and plans were created that communicated the future greenway to the public.

UNIQUE PROJECT FEATURE: Typically, greenways follow stream corridors for obvious reasons. Often there are existing utility easements that can be utilized for the trail that don’t require the purchase of land or removal of trees. In this case, the first half of the greenway does just that, it follows Clarks Creek. The uniqueness of this project, and its key challenge is how to provide an overland connection from the I-485 underpass to Bryton and Highway 115. The Merrick team is currently studying just that and looking at the options of utilizing the Duke Energy easement as much as possible, but this has its limitations as Duke does not allow bridges within their easements. An additional challenge is that the terrain becomes increasingly steep as approaching the Bryton development near Highway 115. The greenway trail is required to be ADA accessible, which presents a real challenge in that section of the corridor. We’re currently evaluating the best routes for this section and looking for ways to maintain ADA accessibility.