New Wolf River Greenway segment to open in June
It is part of long-term plan to expand the trail
Lobbyists with Trump, Pence ties rake in millions.
Beneath a soaring green cathedral formed by the canopies of oak trees, Bob Wenner pauses during a recent hot, sticky morning to reflect on the advantages of the widely varying terrain found along the Wolf River Greenway.
“This is the air-conditioned section of the trail,” says Wenner, the greenway project coordinator and director of real estate for the Wolf River Conservancy.
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Memphis couple letting social media plan their wedding.
The section of the paved trail coursing through the 120-acre Raleigh tract known as Epping Way is nothing if not diverse. It skirts a small beaver pond and a scenic 25 acre lake that’s popular for fishing, then zig-zags through majestic trees before crossing the edge of an agricultural field.
Piece by piece, the conservancy, along with the city of Memphis and Shelby County, are building the greenway — a 12-foot-wide multiuse trail — along a 26-mile route roughly paralleling the Wolf from the Germantown limits to the Mississippi River.
The greenway, which ties into a trail section in Germantown, is costing an estimated $60 million — about half of
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High 82° Low 69° Showers. Forecast, which comes from public sources, including federal grants, and half from private funds the conservancy raised from corporate, philanthropic and individual donors.
Last year, the conservancy opened a trail section on the northern end of Mud Island, where the Wolf flows into the Mississippi, and several other segments are under construction or in design. Nearly all of the greenway should be completed in 2020, although one section north of Mud Island might take two or three years longer.
Located just east of North Highland and south of Stage James Road, the $1.3
million Epping Way segment is latest to be completed. It’s set to officially open next month, but the public already as begun using it.
Although the larger greenway is somewhat of a linear park running through Memphis, Epping Way is an attraction unto itself.
“There are two metaphors that could be used (for the greenway) — emerald necklace or string of pearls. And this is a pearl,” said Chuck Flink, senior adviser for Alta Planning + Design, the firm serving as master designer for the trail system.
The trail section through the tract is nine-tenths of a mile long and opens up previously inaccessible wilderness areas within the heart of Memphis. It traverses land that once was part of Epping Forest Manor, an estate owned by a wealthy cotton merchant and famed big-game hunter, and later became a private club with tennis courts and a swimming pool.
The only work remaining involves punch-list items, including work on gates and signs and power-washing the trail. A neighborhood-style celebration of the Epping Way opening will be conducted sometime in the fall, when cooler weather arrives.
Keith Cole, executive director of the conservancy, said people visiting the Epping Way segment should come away with a “new perspective” on Raleigh, a community that doesn’t often get favorable attention. In the same way, the entire trail will serve to help “bring people together” throughout the city, he said.
The completion of Epping Way will be followed by the planned opening in July of a $2.1 million segment of the greenway through forested areas of John F. Kennedy Park, about a mile to the east.
Flink, whose firm has designed trails across the nation, said the Wolf River project is impressive.
“There aren’t many $60 million greenways in America, so I hope Memphis takes pride in this,” he said.
“It’s fairly unique. It’s also a spectacular resource.”
Reach Tom Charlier at thomas. charlier@commercialappeal.com or 901-529-2572 and on Twitter at @thomasrcharlier.