The city of Roanoke is moving forward with a plan to replace a bridge on the popular Roanoke River greenway. The project is intended to boost recreation, increase biodiversity, and make it easier to clean up after flooding events.
The Roanoke River Greenway was built as part of a massive flood reduction project launched after the Flood of '85 caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. The project smoothed out the river's edges with bench cuts and added a training wall to smooth the water flow.
And it established the greenway – a pedestrian and bike path that runs along the river. In the years since its construction, the Roanoke River Greenway has become a popular destination for locals and visitors alike.
Now the city is looking to complete a project that was left out of that initial flood reduction project — replacing the low-water bridge on Wiley Drive. City Engineer Luke Pugh says there's a few compelling reasons to replace the bridge.
"The first element is to reduce the flood maintenance that we have to do after a flooding event," Pugh says. "The hydraulic openings on the current bridge are very small. We get a lot of debris back up, we get a lot of sedimentation, that really shuts the greenway down."
The new bridge will have larger openings that will trap less debris during storms. It's also intended to boost recreation. The city has made the river and greenway focal points of its marketing to tourists and prospective employers.
Just upstream, the city is developing an in-water kayak park. Replacing the low-water bridge complements that project by making the river easier to float.
"Right now that area is an area you have to portage around if you're doing any type of kayaking or canoeing because the pipes are so small," Pugh says. "Certainly don't recommend folks going through those pipes on their kayaks or canoes. We're also putting in a dedicated fishing pier, making the bridge a little wider is because one of the comments we heard early on is that when greenway users were using that side of the bridge, there were some conflicts with fishing folks."
The $6 million project is currently in the design stage. It's being paid for with a congressional earmark administered by the Virginia Department of Transportation, along with additional federal, state and city funding.
Construction is planned to begin next spring and take about a year.
