Equinox’s mission to facilitate conservation and sustainable development prevents us from taking projects that are the bread and butter for many of our competitors. We will only take on a project if it has some sort of conservation value. Therefore we put in countless hours working to win the awesome projects that we get. The competition is steep especially when it comes to the design of greenways. Communities often hire large national companies. But despite whom a community hires we applaud their dedication to developing and implementing greenways.
In addition to the obvious health and social benefits, greenways also provide economic benefits to communities. An economic analysis of Knoxville’s Maryville-to-Townsend Greenway indicated that every dollar spent over a 10 year period for construction and maintenance will return $2.66 in increased economic activity. These financial benefits are not just for the community in general. Those individuals who live near greenways see increases in their property values even greater than those caused by neighborhood playgrounds or swimming pools.
We are a tiny little group of dedicated professionals so we often take delight in seeing our projects hit the ground. In 2008 we were hired by Jackson County to perform a Greenway Feasibility Study and a master plan to determine the potential viability of a greenway corridor along the Tuckaseegee River.
The corridor was initially identified by Jackson County to utilize land that was already encumbered by a sewer line and the river. The vision was to create a greenway corridor for the citizens of Jackson County and the faculty and students of Western Carolina University. The preliminary master plan included locations for the greenway trail alignment, potential public access points, areas of interest, trailheads, parking areas, river access, bridge location, interpretative signage, and other design recommendations.
The first phase of the Tuckaseegee River Greenway was completed in the summer of 2014 and just recently a 191 ft span, steel pedestrian bridge was installed across the Tuckaseegee River, near the Locust Creek River Access Area along Old Cullowhee Road in Western NC, allowing access to the existing Greenway Trail across the River.
We want to thank Jackson County for sharing with us these incredible images of the installation of that bridge.
